High numbers of individual organisms
were associated with the eastern site, where the seagrass cover
was relatively lower than the western site indicating that additional
environmental factors such as salinity are affecting the
abundance of macrobenthic assemblages off the western coast
of Bahrain.
Conversely, the higher salinity on the western site did not
restrict significantly the diversity of macrobenthic assemblages,
which could be attributed to the higher densities of seagrasses
and finer sediments. This is consistent with the general trend of
increasing faunal diversity with decreasing sediment particle in
the Arabian Gulf (Coles and McCain, 1990). Higher seagrass
cover was reflected in the evenness of the community structure
of the western site. Crustaceans only accounted for 5% of the
total community population in the eastern site compared with
39% in the western site. Despite the extreme natural environmental
conditions including high levels of salinity that may restrict
richness of macrobenthos in the Arabian Gulf (Sheppard
et al., 1992), seagrass beds maintain high levels of biodiversity
and evenness. Therefore, conserving and managing these beds
are deemed to be priorities due to the increased humaninduced
pressures on the coastal and marine environments.