OMAN

Oman’s coastline, which spans 10^o of latitude, encapsulates a wide range of benthic communities, both tropical and temperate in nature. The seas that border Oman exhibit strong seasonal variability driven primarily by the upwelling associated with the summer South-west Monsoon in the Arabian Sea. This has resulted in a reverse gradient in water temperature, with cooler average SST at lower latitudes. Water temperatures in southern Oman have been known to fall as low as 16^o-17^oC for several weeks during the monsoon resulting in a community comprised of both scleractinian corals and temperate kelp beds. These upwelling events, which bathe Omans coral reefs with cool water, also result in higher productivity and elevated nutrient concentrations. For coral reef fish this high productivity has lead to high biomass, such that the reef fish fauna of Oman are similar to that of the Caribbean, with low diversity but high population densities for individual species. Despite the fact that reef building corals are constrained by cold, up-welled water, significant coral communities occur at several locations along Oman’s mainland and offshore islands. Although these coral assemblages have been well described, little is known of the associated fish communities. This unusual environmental setting provided an opportunity to examine the influence of temperature and productivity on the distribution and abundance of the coral reef fishes. Visual census was undertaken at 48 sites encompassing the significant coral reef communities in Oman, surveying the  representative reef fish families including the scarids, acanthurids, pomacentrids, serranids, lethrinids, labrids, pomacanthids and chaetodontids. Videography was used to record benthic habitat at each transect which was analysed using the point count method to give estimates of total cover for all major benthic lifeforms.