Assessment of climate change and its environmental consequences of posidonia coastal distribution : case study : Garawla Islands village at north west coast of Egypt

Abstract EN

Seagrass wrack is considered as one of the environmental problems facing the Egyptian North West coastal zone.

The wrack in the Mediterranean coast of Egypt is composed mainly from Posidonia oceanica.

Its distribution is scattered at different sites along the Mediterranean beaches.

The aim of this work is to study Posidonia wrack as one of the environmental problems in the Egyptian North west coast.

Garawla Islands Village was selected as case study to investigate the Posidonia wrack because it considered as a serious ecological, social and economic issue.

The present study assesses the environmental factors affecting its distribution and its relation with climate change and the possible way of control.

The standard approach for comparing beach litter pollution has been used to assess of the beaches under investigation based on field trip data and satellite images.

The average values and its standard deviation of precipitation, wind speed, relative humidity and solar intensity during 2013 were 0.24±1.64 mm, 4.41±1.34 m/s, 0.58±0.13 fractions and 21.59±7.47 MJ/m2, respectively.

Temporal variation of the climatic conditions with coastal plants near the study area were investigated through three years (1997, 2005 and 2013).

This indicated that the distribution of Posidonia at the coastal area is correlated with the environmental conditions.

Also, the distribution of Posidonia wrack is dependent on the topography of the shoreline.

The direction of dead Posidonia movements is highly affected by the climatic conditions.

The study recognized the sites of accumulated Posidonia wrack.

Recommendations to use special net to control this coastal problem have been suggested