INVESTIGATION OF TEMPORAL VARIABILITY OF CORALS REVEALED BY ROV VIDEOS AT OIL PLATFORMS IN THE ARABIAN GULF

Abstract

The study was conducted at AL-Shaheen oil field within the Arabian Gulf using remotely operated vehicle (ROV) footages in different oil platforms to investigate the impact of platform depth, age, and weight on coral relative cover. The ROV survey implemented in this study signifies the first assessment of soft and hard coral assemblages on AL-Shaheen oil field. For data analysis a generalized linear model (GLM) was implemented within the R programming to describe the relationship between coral cover and the response variables. In this assessment one hard coral species was recorded in Qatari water for the first time. The implemented ROV showed a considerable soft and hard coral cover among different platforms. Corals relative cover was significantly affected by the platform age, depth, and weight. Therefore, platforms with older age and heavier weight should be considered as priority for rig to reef (RTR) approach.