This review examines the substantial changes that have taken place in marine habitats
and resources of the Gulf over the past decade. The habitats are especially interesting
because of the naturally high levels of temperature and salinity stress they experience,
which is important in a changing world climate. However, the extent of all natural
habitats is changing and their condition deteriorating because of the rapid development
of the region and, in some cases from severe, episodic warming episodes. Major impacts
come from numerous industrial, infrastructure-based, and residential and tourism development
activities, which together combine, synergistically in some cases, to cause the observed
deterioration in most benthic habitats. Substantial sea bottom dredging for material
and its deposition in shallow water to extend land or to form a basis for huge developments,
directly removes large areas of shallow, productive habitat, though in some cases
the most important effect is the accompanying sedimentation or changes to water flows
and conditions. The large scale of the activities compared to the relatively shallow
and small size of the water body is a particularly important issue. Important from
the perspective of controlling damaging effects is the limited cross-border collaboration
and even intra-country collaboration among government agencies and large projects.
Along with the accumulative nature of impacts that occur, even where each project
receives environmental assessment or attention, each is treated more or less alone,
rarely in combination. However, their combination in such a small, biologically interacting
sea exacerbates the overall deterioration. Very few similar areas exist which face
such a high concentration of disturbance, and the prognosis for the Gulf continuing
to provide abundant natural resources is poor.
Copyright 2009. Published by Elsevier Ltd.