Day 2 of our special series on the UAE environmental damage report,
Tourism sector will also be hit by climate change
The UAE’s fragile natural habitat and animal life will probably be further strained by climate change which will also hurt tourism.
A new report, published on Monday by Emirates Wildlife Society- WWF, outlined concerns about the effect on coral reefs.
“Marine ecosystems and species of the Arabian Gulf already often function at the maximum limits of their environmental tolerance and further changes in climatic conditions are likely to affect them severely,” the report said.
Sabkhas – low-lying sand and salt flats – are recognised as one of the largest carbon storage habitats of coastal systems.
The report said that changes in rainfalls and higher sea levels could negatively affect sabkhas’ flora and fauna. And, the continuation of current trends in greenhouse gas emissions would lead to the bleaching of a significant proportion of the world’s remaining coral reefs, forecasts showed.
The Arabian Gulf is among the most heat-stressed and saline marine environments in the world because of the region’s desalination plants and decades of pollution.
Although policies are in place to reverse some of the damage done by rapid urban modernisation, rising sea temperatures and ocean acidity have taken their toll on coral reef habitats.
In 2010, bleaching of coral led to the loss of more than half of the acropora coral in Ras Ghanada, Abu Dhabi, which is famous for its reefs. This was important because acropora corals excrete a calcium skeleton, which is the basic building block for reefs. Last month, the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi said it planned to lift the percentage of protected marine areas to 14 per cent by 2019, saying that it would benefit coral reefs and boost marine tourism.
Extreme temperatures also threaten the flora and fauna of the country’s mountainous regions, as the lack of plants could allow invasive species to flourish.