This this report I will target to focus on Two threats posed to the Biological diversity of the Middle East

1.     Aquatic invasive species

The waters of the Arabian Gulf are shallow & evaporation rates are rather high. Salinity of the water is high, therefore marine habitat lives to its limit of tolerance. In this scenario an irresponsible human action can trigger a huge negative impact.

With more than 25, 000 oil tankers crossing through the Strait of Hormuz each year (Literathy et al., 2002), the introduction of aquatic invasive species via ballast water is considered one of the major threats facing the marine environment in the Arabian Gulf. Hamza (2006) reported several exotic phytoplankton and zooplankton species in water samples collected from ballast water tanks of a gas tanker stopped along the United Arab Emirates coastal area. Some of these exotic species, particularly dinoflagellate organisms, are linked to the red tide and fish kill that frequently reported in recent years in Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (Hamza and Munawar, 2009).

In order to reduce this stress, Habshan–Fujairah oil pipeline was constructed to limit the Oil tankers movement in the Strait of Hormuz. This is 360 KM, 48 Inch pipeline commissioned on 15-Jul-2012. Its capacity is 1.5 Million Barrels per day. Efforts like this will greatly reduce the threats & bring in conservation. UAE has taken firm action.

2.     Red Tide [Extensive blooms]

Extensive blooms (i.e. red tides) have been causing severe ecological and economical impacts in the Arabian Gulf. For instance, the massive blooms affected the Arabian Gulf from August 2008 to May 2009 caused widespread fish kills, damaged coral reefs, restricted fishing activities, impacted tourism industry, and interrupted desalination operations. The 2008-2009 harmful algal blooms were associated with the dinoflagellate species Cochlodinium, which was the first time to be observed in the Arabian Gulf waters (Richlen et al., 2010).

Although ecosystems in the Arabian Gulf are adapted to extreme environmental conditions, anomalous sea-surface temperatures due to climatic changes may result in severe impacts on the integrity of theses vulnerable ecosystems. The massive bleaching and subsequent mortality of corals in the Arabian Gulf occurred in 1996 and 1998 with maximum sea-surface temperatures reaching 37.3 C and 38.0 C, respectively (Sheppard and Loughland, 2002 Burt et al., 2011). Although most of the Arabian Gulf countries were affected by these beaching events, Bahrain was the worst affected with an estimated overall loss of 97% of live corals. Recovery of Bahrain reefs was limited in the subsequent years due to continuing coastal developments that are associated with intensive dredging and reclamation (Burt et al., 2013). Additionally, warmer waters can also lead to oxygen depletion and suffocation of marine organisms. Higher temperatures where attributed to the massive fish mortalities along the coasts of Qatar (Al-Ansi et al., 2002).

Overfishing & overgrazing adds to this threats. The Middle East has introduced many legislations & drives to limit the impact. All is going towards right direction & with passage of time the impact will surely reduce

Reference: http://medomed.org, http://www.intechopen.com, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habshan%E2%80%93Fujairah_oil_pipeline