Impacts of Coastal Development Activities On Seagrasses Along The Sudanese Red Sea Coast
Impacts of Coastal Development Activities On Seagrasses Along The Sudanese Red Sea Coast
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Date
2015-05-14
Authors
GAIBALLA, ABDELMONEIM KARAMALLA
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
UOFK
Abstract
The study investigated the impacts of coastal development activities
along the Sudanese Red Sea coast on the seagrass communities. Six sites
were selected: Marsa Bashayer, Marsa Dama Dama, Eastern part of Port
Sudan Harbour (Green Area), Northern part of Port Sudan Harbour
(Shipyard), Marsa Halout and Dongonab Bay. The study covered the
summer and winter seasons in 2003 and 2004. Qualitative and
quantitative data were collected at each of the study sites. The seagrass
species were identified and their distributions, species diversity, relative
percentage cover, shoot density, shoot height and above ground biomass
were measured. Some related physical and chemical parameters of the
aquatic marine environment were analysed. The heavy metals
concentration of Lead, Cadmium, Nickel, and Chromium in the sediment
and seagrass tissues, were also analysed. Onshore and offshore
development activities at the study sites were recorded.
Ten species of seagrass under two families (Hydrochartiaceae and
Cymodoceaceae) were encountered. The relative percentage cover of
seagrass species ranged between 0 and 100 %. The mean shoot density
ranged between 2 and 8050 shoot/m2. The mean shoot height ranged
between 1 and 72 cm. and the mean above ground biomass ranged
between 8.9 and 985.9 g dry weight/m2.
The developmental human activities included trawling, harbours and
jetties construction, boats propelling, anchoring, dredging and drilling,
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dumping of material, discharging of sewage, cooling water and industrial
waste and oil spill.
Generally, the overall sites showed no major environmental
dissimilarities among them except for the water transparency which was
significantly lower in sites in the vicinity of high coastal activities area.
The mean water oil concentration ranged between 0.01 and 0.3 % and
the mean sediment oil concentration ranged between 0.05 and 2.12 %.
Marsa Dama Dama site revealed high levels of heavy metal
concentration.
Some of the developmental activities affected water quality and
degraded seagrass beds in some sites. However, the impact varied from
site to site. The impacts magnitude ranged between very low at
Dongonab Bay and high at the Northern Part of Port Sudan Harbour
(Shipyard). The overall evaluation is that the impact is not severe.
The study recommended that the conservation and management of
seagrass environment should be one of the priorities in the Integrated
Coastal Zone Management of Sudan. Policy and legislation formulation
were required. Further studies on the seagrass community are urgently
needed especially in the fields of taxonomy, ecology, dynamic and
utilization. Additional suggestions to conserve and manage the
seagrasses habitats were also sited.
Description
195page
Keywords
Impacts ,Coastal ,Development, Activities , Seagrasses ,Sudanese ,Red Sea, Coast