Evaluation of arid salt marsh restoration techniques

Abstract

The 1991 Gulf War resulted in the deliberate release of unprecedented quantities of oil into the Gulf. The degradation of over 750 km of shoreline and adjacent wetlands within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was the consequence. The beaches, tide flats, lagoons, rocky shores, and salt marshes along the Kingdom's Gulf shoreline remain severely more than a decade after the oil release. As part of the Remediation Technology Assessment Project (RTA) (Weishar et al. 2004) the applicability of various remediation technologies on salt marsh ecosystems was evaluated. A demonstration restoration project was designed to restore an arid salt marsh after collecting and assessing baseline biological, chemical, and sediment data. The most effective restoration included removal of surface tarcrete/oil impregnated microbial mats, construction of new tidal channels, and transplantation of native species. © 2008 Birkhäuser Verlag AG.