Tolerance of benthic foraminifera to anthropogenic stressors from three sites of the Egyptian coasts

Abstract

Surely the coupling of natural and anthropogenic stressors combined with a lack of regulation resulted in the current threat to a large part of coastal marine biodiversity as well as coastal human societies, particularly in highly populated regions. The distribution pattern of benthic foraminifera as sensitive bio-indicator is utilized to assess human-induced impact on the coastal area, at Alexandria, Port Said and Suez cites of Egypt. Twenty-two benthic foraminiferal genera were identified and complied by principal component analysis into four factors through cluster analysis. Cross correlation of the generic composition, distribution and relative abundance of common genera in the three investigated cores revealed three different coastal environments entities. The categorized environment ranged from light human impact as Alexandria site to heavily impacted by human activities as Port Said and Suez sites. Fauna of Alexandria site reflects an increase in un-polluted water activity revealing high-energy erosive environment. The second entity involves Port Said site, which represents a highly stressed coastal environment, corresponding to high-energy transport conditions influenced by fresh water flush from local Manzala Lake via Bougaz El Gamel outlet while Suez site is influenced by marine hypersaline water coupling with intensified levels of industrial and domestic pollution, attributed to the anthropogenic impact.

Keywords

• Anthropogenic
• Benthic
• Foraminifera
• Genera
• Pollution
• Egypt