Monitoring and evaluating the status of NEOM’s marine ecosystem from space

Nikolaos Papagiannopoulos1, Dionysios E Raitsos2, Georgios Krokos3, John Anthony Gittings Sr4, Vassilis P Papadopoulos5, Alexandra Pavlidou6, Nick Selmes7, Robert J W Brewin7 and Ibrahim Hoteit8, (1)King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Marine Science & Engineering, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, (2)Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), Plymouth, United Kingdom, (3)Earth Sciences and Engineering Department, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, (4)National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Department of Biology, Athens, Greece, (5)Hellenic Centre for Marine Res, Anavissos, Greece, (6)Hellenic Center for Marine Research, Anavyssos, Greece, (7)Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, United Kingdom, (8)Earth Sciences and Engineering Program, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Abstract:
NEOM is a $500bn megaproject that aims to build a fully-automated city operating as an independent economic zone in the northwestern part of Saudi Arabia. The project will expand over an area of 26,500 km², along a 468km coastline. The success of NEOM will rely partly on preserving its marine biodiversity hot-spots, which will directly translate into food security and societal support through fisheries, recreation, and tourism. Monitoring the variability of Ecological Indicators (markers of health status), in relation to the regional environmental conditions and climate change, is vital for such a goal.

In this initial effort, we used satellite-derived regionally-tuned chlorophyll-a (Chl-a - an index of phytoplankton biomass) data from the ESA Ocean Colour - Climate Change Initiative (OC-CCI) at 1km resolution from 1997 to date, and in situ cruise datasets of chlorophyll and nitrate concentrations. The 20-year climatological mean of Chl-a revealed that NEOM is an oligotrophic region, following the broader nature of the Northern Red Sea, with a peak during late winter (~0.18 mg m-3) and a minimum during late summer (~0.09 mg m-3). The nitrate levels of the open-waters (sampling stations with >75m depth) of NEOM fluctuated between 0.1 to 0.4 mg m-3 from November 2017 to April 2018. The peak in Chl-a coincided with the coldest surface water temperatures, suggesting the upwelling of nutrient-rich waters during winter. The reef-bound regions appeared to have higher Chl-a concentrations compared to the open-waters, and were not aligned with the typical seasonal pattern. Our regional hydrodynamic model revealed that most of the open-waters around NEOM are influenced by the general circulation of the Northern Red Sea, i.e. by cyclonic eddies and strong coastal currents. However, most of the shallow reef-bound regions seem more isolated, with weak currents prevailing throughout the year, making the coral-rich bays and islets surrounding NEOM particularly vulnerable to urban runoff and coastal constructions.

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