Abstract
The importance of coastal saline salt flats along the southern and western Arabian Gulf coast (known as sabkha) is discussed. Sabkha landforms are being rapidly converted for industrial and urban coastal expansion. In Abu Dhabi, sabkha has also been successfully converted to productive saline agro-systems using both local mangrove (Avicennia marina) and saline tolerant algae (Dunaliella salina). The mangrove systems have developed into productive forest ecosystems supporting local fisheries. The algae systems developed in ponds within sabkha have produced a natural pharmaceutical (beta-carotene), biomass and oil for production of biofuel. The use of sabkha landforms as a sink for heated saline brine produced by the desalination and industrial use of seawater is preferable than its current discharge to the marine environment where it is causing ecological impacts. The alteration of sabkha landforms into saline agro-systems is argued to be more productive than the permanent conversion of these same landforms for industrial or residential development.
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Loughland, R.A., Qasem, A.M., Burwell, B., Prihartato, P.K. (2016). Coastal Sabkha (Salt Flats) of the Southern and Western Arabian Gulf. In: Finlayson, C., Milton, G., Prentice, R., Davidson, N. (eds) The Wetland Book. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6173-5_185-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6173-5_185-3
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