Water in Qatar: aiming for sustainability in a desert climate

Coral reefs are the most diverse ecosystems, existing for more than 200 million years. While they’re home to a large portion of ocean life, scientists warn that more than 90 percent of the world’s reefs could be lost by 2050, unless urgent action is taken to tackle global warming.

At Qatar University’s marine department, scientists from the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, and the Environmental Science Center, are striving to protect coral in the Arabian Gulf with a coral reef restoration project.

Ninety kilometres off the coast of the capital, Doha, a coral nursery, with fragments from donor colonies are nurtured until fit to be returned to their degraded reefs. Almost a quarter of the world’s reefs have already been destroyed. “We are now, unfortunately, at the stage where we can no longer just trust that if nature is given its course, it will naturally recover,” says Research Assistant Professor, Pedro Range.

Associate Professor in Marine Sciences & MARESCO Team Leader, Radhouane Ben-Hamadou, says that dive surveys and initiatives like these are vital to understand growth, and mortality rates, especially in extreme climates. Despite the Arabian Gulf being the hottest sea in the world, the rates of coral recruitment are high. This occurs when tiny coral larvae float away and attach themselves to new reef communities. An onshore nursery also further helps coral to reproduce in optimum conditions.

Qatar is also the first college in the country to allow women to study marine sciences, “I love the environment so much, and I decided to contribute to that by being a marine scientist and helping the ocean,” says undergraduate Noora Nasser Al Thani.

At Qatar’s Science and Technology Park, scientists from