Status of macrobenthic communities in the hypersaline waters of the Gulf of Salwa, Arabian Gulf

摘要: Abstract The spatial extent of hypersaline marine ecosystems is very limited and therefore they have received only little scientific study. Here, we present the status macrobenthic communities in a water body, Gulf Salwa (Saudi Arabia part), Arabian assess natural stress, if any, communities. nearly isolated from main body shows progressive southward increases salinity (up to 63 during summer) temperature 40 °C due decrease tidal flushing. study reveals that benthic southern region (south 25° 10′ N) are under while deeper, northern, inner bay regions healthier than south. In region, there were 87 93% reduction polychaete species, 49 57% species diversity polychaetes 70 71% non-polychaete taxa compared northern region. identified some opportunistic such as Fabricia sp., Heteromastus filiformis , Platynereis insolita Nereis sp. 1 non-polychaetes chironomid larvae, podocops cumaceans capable adapting environment when exceeded 60 35 °C summer.