Lotfi Jilani Rabaoui

King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals | KFUPM · Centre for Environment and Marine Studies

Corals are invertebrate animals that belong to the phylum Cnidaria, a diverse and fascinating group of colorful creatures. Cnidarians come in a wide range of hues, sizes, and shapes, but what sets them apart is that they all have a main body cavity with a one mouth opening surrounded by stinging tentacles. Each coral animal is known as a polyp, and...

Managing marine nonindigenous species (mNIS) is challenging, because marine environments are highly connected, allowing the dispersal of species across large spatial scales, including geopolitical borders. Cross-border inconsistencies in biosecurity management can promote the spread of mNIS across geopolitical borders, and incursions often go unnot...

Mismanaged plastic waste interacts with secondary environmental pollutants, potentially aggravating their impact on ecosystems and human health. Here we characterized the natural and artificial radionuclides in polyethylene terephthalate bottles collected from the industrial littoral discharge of a phosphate fertilizer plant. The activity concentra...

To enrich spatio-temporal information on the distribution of alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, a collective effort by 173 marine scientists was made to provide unpublished records and make them open access to the scientific community. Through this effort, we collected and harmonized a dataset of 12,64...

In view of the unique oceanographic conditions combined with human pressure, we assessed the ecological status of macrobenthos from the entire Saudi waters (including open waters and inner bays) of the Gulf in 2013. A total of 328 macrobenthic species (228 polychaete species, 47 crustacean species, 46 mollusc species, and seven species belonging to...

In the early XXth century, the Gulf of Gabes in SE Tunisia used to host the most extended Posidonia oceanica seagrass beds in the Mediterranean basin and was a highly productive hotspot of benthic species. Since the 70's, >500 million t of wet toxic phosphogypsum discharges from a fertilizer industrial complex have led to the gradual loss of ∼90 %...

This Collective Article presents information on 20 taxa belonging to five (5) Phyla: Cnidaria (2), Mollusca (8), Arthropoda (4), Echinodermata (1) and Chordata (5) recorded from the Alboran Sea to the Levantine Sea. These new records were found in seven (7) different ecoregions as follows: Alboran Sea: new record of the rare football octopus Ocytho...

The stomach contents of 30 male and 43 female (age < 3 years; 74–236 cm total length) juvenile great hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna mokarran (Rüppell, 1837)) obtained from commercial fisheries operating in Saudi Arabian waters of the Arabian Gulf were analyzed for the first time. After exclusion of parasites and abiotics, a total of 31 prey items, incl...

This work investigates the ecological and biological traits of two Littorinidae species (Echinolittorina punctata and Melarhaphe neritoides) along the Northern and Northeastern rocky coasts of Tunisia. Field observations conducted at 10 stations during spring 2017 revealed the cohabitation of these species. E. punctata was mainly found on the rocky...

In spite of the ecological services provided by elasmobranchs, their diversity and populations are significantly declining even before appropriate assessments are conducted. This paper presents information on elasmobranch diversity in the Saudi waters of the Arabian Gulf based on fishery-independent and dependent surveys. A total of 369 individual...

In this paper, we investigated seasonal variations in concentrations of microplastics (MPs) in surface sediments of a lagoon heavily impacted by human activities, located in northern Tunisia (the Bizerte lagoon, southern Mediterranean Sea). Analyses of 112 sediment samples collected from 28 stations between May 2019 and February 2020 revealed signi...

Some macro-benthic organisms, such as macroalgae, bryozoans, sponges, and gorgonian corals, can create heterogeneous frameworks of habitats in the surrounding seabed. Such frameworks are important benthic ecosystems, but knowledge of them is fairly limited in the Arabian Gulf, the hottest sea in the world. In this study, the presence of macroalgae,...

This study, which included examination of the distribution and life history and a stock assessment of the flathead lobster (Thenus orientalis), is the first of its kind in the waters of Saudi Arabia in the Arabian Gulf, also known as the Persian Gulf. The flathead lobster is widely distributed in this region, although it is more abundant in the cen...

The Silurian Sharawra Member (middle to late Llandoverian) in Saudi Arabia exhibits unique surface traces with exceptional preservation: Seven small, wing-shaped traces occur on a sandstone slab showing well-defined hummocky cross-stratification having a few decimeters wavelength being covered by a thin mud layer. These traces are preserved as conc...

This Collective Article includes records of 29 alien and cryptogenic species in the Mediterranean Sea, belonging to eight Phyla (Rhodophyta, Ochrophyta, Cnidaria, Annelida, Mollusca, Arthropoda, Echinodermata, and Chordata) and coming from 11 countries. Notes published here can be divided into three different categories: occupancy estimation for wi...

This is the first study on the behavior and industrial fluxes of rare earth elements (REE) in the coastal fertilizer plants of Gabes (south-eastern Tunisia), the economic losses related to their wastes, and their environmental and human health hazards. The concentrations of 16 REE were assessed in phosphate rock (PR), phosphogypsum (PG) and phospho...

Information about habitats occupied by aquatic organisms while completing critical stages of their lives, called essential fish habitats, is crucial for their sustainability. In this work, we determine essential fish habitats (nursery and spawning grounds) of several fish species inhabiting Saudi territorial waters in the western Arabian Gulf using...

The Arabian Gulf is a natural laboratory to examine how subtropical coral reef ecosystems might change in responding to recurring heating events because of uniquely high water temperature and relatively low fish diversity. Several statistical methods were applied to long-term (30 yrs) monitoring data in the western Arabian Gulf to extract clean sig...

Despite the important role of marine mammals in marine ecosystems and the imperative for their conservation, there is still a great lack of information on the diversity, distribution, and density of these animals in the Saudi waters of the Arabian Gulf. To fill this gap, an integrative data-collection approach including fishermen’s questionnaires,...

The blue swimming crab, Portunus segnis (Forskål, 1775), formerly known as P. pelagicus (Linnaeus, 1758) has become a major fishery resource in the Gulf. Yet, there are no regional studies on the stock population dynamics and life history processes of this species. Considering the extreme oceanographic features of the Gulf (high salinity and high t...

The fan mussel (or pen shell), Pinna nobilis, is an emblematic large bivalve, endemic to the Mediterranean Sea. Due to various anthropogenic impacts, its populations had substantially decreased the last century, which led to its strict protection by international and national legislative instruments since the 1990s. Since 2016, P. nobilis has been...

Although several studies previously assessed the contents of trace metals in the sediments of the heavily humanimpacted lagoon of Bizerte (northern Tunisia), multi-analytical approaches have not been, so far, used to assess the ecological risks in this water body. This study attempts to provide a comprehensive ecological risk assessment related to...

The present paper reports the rapid spread and increased abundance of the northern brown shrimp Penaeus aztecus Ives, 1891, four years after its first record by Ben Jarray et al. (2019), in the offshore waters of the Gulf of Gabes (south-eastern Tunisia). In order to trace the spread of this shrimp and assess the potential effects of its establishm...

The Gulf of Aqaba (hereafter ‘the Gulf’) is a narrow, semi-enclosed, warm, high saline, and oligotrophic water body. This baseline study provides the first quantitative data on deep-sea (207–1281 m depth) benthos of the Gulf. Fifty-five benthic species (predominantly polychaetes) with a density of 160–670 ind. m-2, species richness of 11–25, and Sh...

The occurrence of three exotic decapods is reported from the Lagoon of Bizerte (northern Tunisia) based on records gathered from local fishermen. These three species are the Atlantic blue crab Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, 1896, the blue swimming crab Portunus segnis (Forskål, 1775), and the Lessepsian shrimp Trachysalambria palaestinensis (Steinitz...

The macroalgae Lophocladia lallemandii (Montagne) F. Schmitz and Sarconema filiforme (Sonder) Kylin and the spaghetti bryozoan Amathia verticillata (delle Chiaje, 1822) are here first reported in native seagrass beds in the Gulf of Gabès (southeastern Tunisia, Mediterranean Sea). Among them, the sighting of S. filiforme constitutes the first record...

For millennia, coastal and marine ecosystems have adapted and flourished in the Red Sea’s unique environment. Surrounded by deserts on all sides, the Red Sea is subjected to high dust inputs and receives very little freshwater input, and so harbors a high salinity. Coral reefs, seagrass meadows, and mangroves flourish in this environment and provid...

Argyrops spinifer and Rhabdosargus haffara are two sympatric seabream species making important contributions to fisheries landings in the western Arabian/Persian Gulf. We identify the strengths and weaknesses in the long‐term sustainability of A. spinifer and R. haffara stocks by integrating multiple sources of data, including fisheries catch and e...

The Arabian Gulf is a natural laboratory for examining the consequences of large-scale disturbances due to global warming on coral reef ecosystems because of its extreme temperature regime. Using a coral reef monitoring time series extending from 1985 to 2015, we examined the long-term ecological changes in fish and macro-invertebrate communities a...

Sequestration of plastics in sediments is considered the ultimate sink of marine plastic pollution that would justify unexpectedly low loads found in surface waters. Here, we demonstrate that mangroves, generally supporting high sediment accretion rates, efficiently sequester plastics in their sediments. To this end, we extracted micro- plastics fr...

This article includes 23 new records of alien and cryptogenic species in the Mediterranean Sea, belonging to 4 Phyla (Chordata, Echinodermata, Arthropoda and Mollusca), distributed from the Alboran to the Levantine Sea. Records are reported from eight countries listed from West to East as follows: Algeria: new records of the Atlantic blue crab Call...

Compared to open sea environments, there is still limited knowledge about microplastic levels in semi-enclosed systems such as coastal lagoons. This work aims to assess the levels of MPs in the waters of an urban lagoon (Bizerte lagoon, northern Tunisia) and to study the effects of environmental factors on their distribution and abundance. Average...

This study assesses the microplastics (MPs) levels in mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) and seawater from a southern Mediterranean lagoon (Bizerte lagoon, Northern Tunisia) and discusses the potential effects of its consumption on human health. Polyethylene was the most abundant in mussels and seawater, followed by polypropylene and cellophane. T...

In early XXth cen­tury, the Gulf of Gabes (SE Tunisia) used to host the most ex­tended Posi­do­nia ocean­ica sea­grass beds in the Mediter­ranean Sea, and a highly pro­duc­tive hotspot of ben­thic/ de­m­er­sal bio­di­ver­sity. Sponge har­vest­ing and seabed trawl­ing pro­voked a first step of sea­grass degra­da­tion. Sub­se­quently, phos­ph­o­gyp­s...

Shrimp trawl fishery has evoked serious concerns at both regional and global levels due to its strong association with the bycatch and its significant contribution to the total global discards. Using three data methods (examination of fishermen log-books, questionnaire survey and observer monitoring), the bycatch and discards associated with shrimp...

Along the past century, the Arabian Gulf has experienced a continuous and fast coastal development leading to increase the human pressures on the marine environment. The present study attempts to describe the historical changes of trace elements in the sediments of vegetated coastal habitats in the western Arabian Gulf. 210Pb–dated sediment cores c...

Vegetated coastal ecosystems along the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf coasts of Saudi Arabia thrive in an extremely arid and oligotrophic environment, with high seawater temperatures and salinity. Mangrove, seagrass and saltmarsh ecosystems have been shown to act as efficient sinks of sediment organic carbon, earning these vegetated ecosystems the monike...

We used the cytochrome oxidase subunit I (coI) gene DNA to barcode 117 endemic Gulf and cosmopolitan Indo–West Pacific fish species belonging to 54 families and 13 orders. Novel DNA barcodes were provided for 18 fish species (Trachinocephalus sp., Nematalosa sp., Herklotsichthys lossei, Upeneus doriae, Trachurus indicus, Apogonichthyoides taeniatus...

The present work examines the different types of solid effluents dumped in the coastal environment from Gabes phosphate fertilizer plants, describes their coastal repartition and assesses their long-term environmental impacts. Scanning Electron Microscopy analysis of collected beach sediment samples showed that these wastes consist of phosphogypsum...

In this study we lay the groundwork for sustainability‐oriented fisheries management, by estimating parameters the life history of orange‐spotted trevally Carangoides bajad as well as trends of abundance in coral‐reef habitats. We observed a new record of maximum size of 720 mm fork length. Carangoides bajad is a moderately long‐lived (14 years) an...

The orange-spotted grouper Epinephelus coioides is one of the most important commercially exploited fish species in the Arabian Gulf. Studies to establish the basic biological knowledge necessary for sustainable exploitation are few and of limited spatial extent. We carry out a comparative analysis of life history traits of this sequential hermaphr...

This work is a first contribution to the knowledge of natural radionuclides (226Ra, 238U, 40K, and 232Th) activities in phosphate rock (NORM), phosphogypsum, and phosphogypsum foam (TENORM) from the coastal fertilizer plants of Gabes (Southeastern Tunisia) and the assessment of their radiation hazards on human health and the surrounding environment...

Mobile fishing gears are responsible of various direct effects on benthic communities. The most important (in volume and value) fishery in Saudi waters of the Arabian Gulf is the 6-month trawl season for the green tiger shrimp. The fleet is composed of hundreds of artisanal boats carrying out short-duration tows of small trawls. To study the impact...

Epinephelus areolatus and Siganus canaliculatus are two species of fisheries importance associated with vegetated habitats, which are in turn threatened by human activities such as land filling. We tested their associations with vegetated habitats in the Arabian Gulf and examined essential life history traits to infer their vulnerability to the deg...

The harsh environmental conditions (elevated salinity and temperature) and the anthropogenic stressors (offshore oil-related activities, past incidents of oil spills and coastal development activities) have given a notion that the Arabian Gulf is a stressed water body. In view of this, we assessed the ecological status (health condition) of seabed...

Massive consumption of petroleum since the past century has led to considerable emissions into marine ecosystems. Marine sediments may accumulate substantial quantities of petroleum and associated contaminants in oil-producing areas. Here, we report accelerated accumulation of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) in ‘blue carbon’ vegetated ecosystems...

In spite of the crucial ecological roles played by marine mammals in marine ecosystems, there is still a knowledge gap on the diversity, distribution, density and abundance of these animals in Saudi waters of the Arabian Gulf. To fill this gap, different types of data-collection surveys, including fishermen questionnaires, cetacean sighting reports...

The Gabes Gulf had received huge quantities of phosphogypsum discharged from fertilizer plants. Dumping phosphogypsum in coastal waters leads to the formation of foam layers which can float on the surface and be passively transported to distant areas. This is the first attempt at geochemical and mineralogical characterization of these industrial fo...

Despite the unique characteristics of the Red Sea (high temperature, high salinity, and oligotrophic conditions), only a few benthic studies have been conducted in its deep-sea environments. Hence, a study on macrobenthos was undertaken in deep-sea locations of the Red Sea within the Saudi Arabian waters. Sediment samples were collected using a box...

Certain coastal ecosystems such as mangrove, saltmarsh and seagrass habitats have been identified as significant natural carbon sinks, through the sequestration and storage of carbon in their biomass and sediments, collectively known as 'blue carbon' ecosystems. These ecosystems can often thrive in extreme environments where terrestrial systems oth...

Even though the Red Sea is characterized by unique oceanographic conditions, only few studies have addressed the ecology of its deep-sea benthos. This work discusses some traits of the Saudi deep waters of the Red Sea between 23°N and 28°N. Macrobenthic samples were collected using a box corer (0.1 m2 surface area) from 59 stations at depths rangin...

Since the establishment of the coastal industrial complex in Gabes city (Gulf of Gabes, SE Tunisia), hundred million tons of untreated phosphogypsum have been discharged in the open sea causing serious environmental problems. To better understand the dynamic and behavior of phosphate/phosphogypsum contaminants from raw ores to marine environment, a...

Anthropogenic sea level rise (SLR) presents one of the greatest risks to human lives and infrastructures. Coastal vegetated ecosystems, that is, tidal marshes, seagrass meadows, and mangrove forests, elevate the seabed through soil accretion, providing a natural coastline protection against SLR. The soil accretion of these ecosystems has never been...

The “New Mediterranean Biodiversity Records” series includes new records of marine species found in the Mediterranean basin and/or information on the spatial distribution of already established species of particular interest. The current article presents information on 21 marine taxa classified per country according to their geographic position in...

The green tiger shrimp Penaeus semisulcatus is one of most productive fisheries in the Saudi waters of the Arabian Gulf. Currently, two artisanal fleets harvest the stock and management is limited to input control measures. Progress to quantitatively-based, sustainability-oriented management is precluded by the lack of basic ecological and biologic...