cold water upwellings cover Gutf of oman coral reefs

Using a programmable unrlerwatet temperaturc recorcler (Hu-erun s.f. brand).

hoully sea water tempcratures were recorcl-
:*:li*":^,+:rjijilTfr.i l:,:*':'l:9i11"ro-*j-;i;o.;;;;;lito-to23
.c;;;;;;;ffi
ture ranged fr.m to 30.2 "c to 22,8 'C. Daily temperature fructuatio.r ,p
t. n.+
January reel (Fig 1)..rhe tempera-
irtijtr;'b*;;;L!il""
32 November lgg0.These
shifts in telnperature
FAHAL ISLAND, OMAN .11 were almost immediate
M
9 October 1990 - 22 January 1 99i as the turbid thermo-
ciine passed over the
JU coral comnlunity. This
daily varialioa was clo-
se to the annual tempe-
ll*4ilil rature range. Strong
8za il,1ilJ,41,r, ,,,fl*^*^ daytime offshore winds
c) l' sometimes bxieedirg
3 3{)knots oc€ured almost
E daily from early Octo-
c)
o_ '1ffi{l' ber lo early November.
E2A
e-- I
These winds pushed
ihe warm, clear surface
water offshore which
was repiaced by cold,
zc turbid watei. The cold
water intrusions showed
il a diurnal periodicity
corresponding to the
strength of the wind.
Highest wirid speeds
05-Nov 29-Dec 25-Jan occured during the day
and the lowest at night.
The inlrusions lasted for
a maximum of i5 hours
each day.The thermo-
cline was obvious while
diving because of the
temperature differential
and the extreme change
in turbidity. The warm
water had a horizontal
visibility of about 15 m,
while the cold water
was brown and horizon-
tal visibility was less
than 2 m.The exlreme
thermal changes did not
result in any short-term.
large-scale mortalities
to the Poritei sp. domi-
nated coral communitv.
Tiopical fish,were
observed leaving their
shelters in coral heads
and swimming in lront
of the progressing ther-
mal wave. (Fig.2)

N.J. Quinn. D.W. Johnson

Fisheries Science and Technology Department, Sultan Qaboos University, Sultanate of
Onan
Present adt{resseo-:
N{:9:1"..Biology Deparrment, University of rhe Sourh pacific. Suva, Fiji
D.W. Johnson. Narural Resource Consulta;ts. 1296 E 4400N. guht. Ioaio',s::tn

Rcc#sflG@s Coral Reefs (1996) 15:214