Arabian Peninsula coastal fog desert
Encyclopedia
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula is a land mass situated north-east of Africa. Also known as Arabia or the Arabian subcontinent, it is the world's largest peninsula and covers 3,237,500 km2...
is an ecoregion
Ecoregion
An ecoregion , sometimes called a bioregion, is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than an ecozone and larger than an ecosystem. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural...
which experiences thick fogs where visibility may be reduced to 33 feet (10 metres). It is classed as a Afrotropic
Afrotropic
The Afrotropic is one of the Earth's eight ecozones. It includes Africa south of the Sahara Desert, the southern and eastern fringes of the Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, southern Iran and extreme southwestern Pakistan, and the islands of the western Indian Ocean. It was formerly...
fog desert
Fog desert
A fog desert is a type of desert where fog supplies the majority of moisture needed by animal and plant life.Examples of fog deserts include the Atacama Desert of coastal Chile and Peru, the Baja California Desert of Mexico, the Namib Desert in Namibia, the Arabian Peninsula coastal fog desert,and...
Location and description
This ecosystem exists on a strip along the western and eastern coasts of Arabia. It follows the coast of OmanOman
Oman , officially called the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the...
southward from Masirah Island
Masirah Island
Masirah is an island off the East coast of Oman, 95 km long north-south, between 12 and 14 km wide, with an area of about 649 km², and a population estimated at 12,000 in 12 villages mainly in the north of the island...
and reaches inland to 120 km in the Jiddat al Harasisi
Dhofar
The Dhofar region lies in Southern Oman, on the eastern border with Yemen. Its mountainous area covers and has a population of 215,960 as of the 2003 census. The largest town in the region is Salalah. Historically, it was the chief source of frankincense in the world. However, its frankincense...
plateau and the Dhofar
Dhofar
The Dhofar region lies in Southern Oman, on the eastern border with Yemen. Its mountainous area covers and has a population of 215,960 as of the 2003 census. The largest town in the region is Salalah. Historically, it was the chief source of frankincense in the world. However, its frankincense...
mountains. From here it continues as a very narrow strip (only 5 km wide) along the coast of Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
and up the 50 km wide the Tihamah
Tihamah
Tihamah or Tihama is a narrow coastal region of Arabia on the Red Sea. It is currently divided between Saudi Arabia and Yemen. In a broad sense, Tihamah refers to the entire coastline from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Bab el Mandeb Strait but it more often refers only to its southern half, starting...
plain along the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
coast of Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
. In Oman and Yemen moisture is provided by thick fogs coming off the ocean during the summer khareef
Khareef
Khareef is a colloquial Arabic term used in southern Oman and southeastern Yemen for the south east monsoon. The monsoon affects Dhofar Governorate and Al Mahrah Governorate from about June to early September. Towns such as Salalah depend upon the khareef for water supply...
monsoon, while the hot Tihamah plain is moisturised by some rainfall and the generally high humidity of the Red Sea.
Flora
In this region, although it rarely rains the fogFog
Fog is a collection of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. While fog is a type of stratus cloud, the term "fog" is typically distinguished from the more generic term "cloud" in that fog is low-lying, and the moisture in the fog is often generated...
provides moisture sufficient to nurture a great deal of grassland
Grassland
Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...
, shrubs and thick woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
. There are over sixty local species of plant. This coastal strip is of particular importance as further inland where the fog does not have an influence most of the Arabian Peninsula is desert. Vegetation varies progressively away from the coast which features dense woodland of Anogeissus dhofarica
Anogeissus dhofarica
Anogeissus dhofarica is a species of plant in the Combretaceae family. It is found in Oman and Yemen. It is threatened by habitat loss.-References:* Ghazanfar, S.A. 1998. . Downloaded on 20 August 2007....
, Acacia senegal
Acacia senegal
is a small deciduous Acacia tree known by the common names Rfaudraksha, Gum Acacia, Gum Arabic Tree, or Gum Senegal Tree. It is native to semi-desert regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as Oman, Pakistan, and northwestern India. It grows to a height of 5-12m, with a trunk up to 30 cm in...
and various thorny Commiphora
Commiphora
Commiphora is a genus of flowering plants in the family Burseraceae. It includes about 185 species of trees and shrubs, often armed or thorny, native to Africa, Arabia, and the Indian subcontinent.-Uses:...
trees and shrubs. The richest flora can be found in the Dhofar mountains which have 900 plants including 60 endemic species and two endemic genera, Cibirhiza and Dhofaria. One of these plants, the Frankincense
Frankincense
Frankincense, also called olibanum , is an aromatic resin obtained from trees of the genus Boswellia, particularly Boswellia sacra, B. carteri, B. thurifera, B. frereana, and B. bhaw-dajiana...
tree (Boswellia sacra) was a source of great wealth for Dhofar in antiquity. In Yemen the side of Jabal Urays facing the sea is covered with Euphorbia balsamifera
Euphorbia balsamifera
Euphorbia balsamifera is a plant in the Euphorbia genus. It is distributed from Arabian Peninsula to Sahara and Canary Islands....
shrubs.
Fauna
The many mammals found here include the Arabian OryxArabian Oryx
The Arabian Oryx or White Oryx is a medium sized antelope with a distinct shoulder hump, long straight horns, and a tufted tail. It is a bovid, and the smallest member of Oryx genus, native to desert and steppe areas of the Arabian peninsula...
(Oryx leucoryx) which was reintroduced to the wild after disappearing, gazelles and the Nubian ibex
Nubian Ibex
The Nubian ibex is a desert-dwelling goat species found in mountainous areas of Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt, Ethiopia, Yemen, Sudan, and Pakistan. It is generally considered to be a subspecies of Alpine ibex, but is sometimes considered specifically distinct...
, a goat antelope
Goat antelope
A goat-antelope or caprid is any of the species of mostly medium-sized bovids that make up the subfamily Caprinae , part of the Bovidae family of ruminants...
. Predators found on the coast include caracal
Caracal
The caracal is a fiercely territorial medium-sized cat ranging over Western Asia, South Asia and Africa.The word caracal comes from the Turkish word "karakulak", meaning "black ear". In North India and Pakistan, the caracal is locally known as syahgosh or shyahgosh, which is a Persian term...
s, Arabian wolf
Arabian Wolf
The Arabian wolf is a subspecies of Gray Wolf which was once found throughout the Arabian Peninsula, but now only lives in small pockets in Southern Israel, Southern and western Iraq, Oman, Yemen, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and probably in some parts of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.-Features and...
, striped hyaena and the critically endangered Arabian leopard
Arabian leopard
The Arabian leopard is a leopard subspecies native to the Arabian Peninsula and classified as critically endangered by IUCN since 1996. Less than 200 animals remained in 2006...
(Panthera pardus nimr), which survives on Jebel Samhan in the Dhofar mountains. The Arabian Gazelle
Arabian Gazelle
The Arabian gazelle was an elusive gazelle that was apparently hunted to extinction in its Middle Eastern homeland, Saudi Arabia. It is only known from a single specimen collected on the Farasan Islands in the Red Sea in 1825...
which once lived on the peninsula is now extinct.
Threats and preservation
The main threat to this ecosystem is overgrazing by increasing numbers of cattle and other livestock as well as off-road driving and human encroachment. Urban areas in this ecoregion include: in Oman the port of DuqmDuqm
Duqm is a port town on the Arabian Sea, in central-eastern Oman.Duqm was a small fishing settlement of the Janubah tribe on the coast of southern Oman where a party of soldiers of the Muscat and Oman Field Force and geologists of Petroleum Development Oman was landed in February 1954 to begin the...
and the Dhofar capital of Salalah
Salalah
Salalah , is the capital and seat of the governor or Wali of the southern Omani province of Dhofar. The population of Salalah was 197,169 in 2009....
: in Yemen, the Hadramaut port capital Al Mukalla
Al Mukalla
Al Mukalla is a main sea port and the capital city of the Hadramaut coastal region in Yemen in the southern part of Arabia on the Gulf of Aden close to the Arabian Sea...
, the former capital and ancient port of Aden
Aden
Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...
, the Red Sea coffee ports of Al Hudaydah
Al Hudaydah
Al Hudaydah is the fourth largest city in Yemen with a population of 400,000 people, and the centre of Al Hudaydah Governorate.-Overview:...
(still the largest town on this coast of Yemen) and Mocha
Mocha, Yemen
Mocha or Mokha is a port city on the Red Sea coast of Yemen. Until it was eclipsed in the 19th century by Aden and Hodeida, Mocha was the principal port for Yemen's capital Sana'a.-Overview:...
, and the World Heritage site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
of Zabid
Zabid
Zabid is a town with an urban population of around 23,000 persons on Yemen's western coastal plain. The town, named after Wadi Zabid, the wadi to its south, is one of the oldest towns in Yemen...
; and the city of Jizan
Jizan
-Ethnography:The inhabitants of Jazan, are made up of Arabs. Islam is the religion of almost the totality of the inhabitants of the city and the province.-External links:*http://www.jazan.gov.sa* *http://krwetatnt.com/vb/...
, the fruit basket of Saudi Arabia. Protected areas in Oman include the controversial Arabian Oryx Sanctuary
Arabian Oryx Sanctuary
The Arabian Oryx Sanctuary is an animal sanctuary in the Omani Central Desert and Coastal Hills. Within its boundaries are found rare fauna, including a free-ranging herd of Arabian oryx, the first since the species' extinction in the wild in 1972, and subsequent reintroduction in 1982 at this...
where the reintroduction took place, and Jebel Samhan Nature Reserve established for the protection of the leopards. There are a number of Important Bird Area
Important Bird Area
An Important Bird Area is an area recognized as being globally important habitat for the conservation of bird populations. Currently there are about 10,000 IBAs worldwide. The program was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife International...
s on the coast of Yemen but none are officially protected.