Exploring Sheraoh Island at South-Eastern Qatar: First Distributional Records of Some Inland and Offshore Biota with Annotated Checklist

Sheraoh island is the most remote among Qatari islands, nearly 73.5 km south-eastern of the mainland of the peninsula. In March 2010, a preliminary general survey of the species was conducted. Observations were made partly by wading and snorkeling in the intertidal zone and partly by surveying the inland habitats. In total the 31 species were recorded, 4 species of halophyte plants: Halopeplis perfoliata, Suaeda vermiculata, Salsola baryosoma and Zygophyllum qatarense, one unexpected terrestrial mammal: the cape hare Lepus capensis, 2 species of visiting birds: Motacilla flava and Anthus campestus and one species of sea bird. Phalacrocorax nigrogularis, one dolphin species: Sousa chinensis. The largest richness was found in the marine habitats, 3 species of sea weeds: Colpomenia sinusa, Padina boergesenii and Sargassum boveanum, 3 species of corals: Anomastraea irregularis, Platygyra lamellina and Porites harrisoni, 2 species of nudibranchs: Chromodoris cazae and Chromodoris sp. (unidentified)., 4 crab species: Hermit crab (unidentified), Etisus laevimanus, Grapsus albolineatus and Lambrus prensor, 4 species of echinoderms: Pentacentral mammillatus, Ophiothela venusta, Diadema setosum and Echinometra mathaei, 5 species of bony fish: Doryrhamphus sp. (larva), Cypserulus oligolepis, Lethrinus nebulosus, Cephalopholis miniatus and Hemiramphus marginatus, one species of sea snakes: Hydrophis sp. The most striking result is to collect an unknown nudibranch species and to report the cape hare which is unexpected inhabitant. All figures of this study are published for the first time in Qatar.Qatar Universit

Assessment of Commonly Used Pesticides in the Ground Water of the Shallow Aquifer Systems in Jericho and Jeftlik areas/ Lower Jordan Valley, Occupied Palestinian Territories

One of the most important pollutants that may reach the groundwater through agricultural return flow combined with abuse and ignorance is pesticides. This study focuses on the examination of the concentration of three pesticides: Abamectin, Imidacloprid, and ß-Cyfluthrin, all of which have been used in large quantities in the Lower Jordan Valley (LJV) for the last three decades. Twenty five groundwater samples were collected from water boreholes where water is abstracted from two phreatic aquifer systems which are the Plio-Plistocene aquifer system in Jericho and Lower Al Jeftlik areas and the Eocene carbonate aquifer system in the Middle of Al Jeftlik. The depth of the boreholes in both aquifer system ranges between 80 and 120 m. Water samples were analyzed for Abamectin, Imidacloprid, and ß-Cyfluthrin using the HPLC-UV method. These samples represent two main agricultural locations (Jericho, and the Al Jeftlik). Of the 25 wells sampled, Abamectin was detected in 11 wells in concentrations ranging between 1.24 ppb and 81.71ppb. Imidacloprid was detected in 24 wells in concentrations ranging between 1.60ppb and 325.0ppb. Finally, ß-Cyfluthrin was detected in 7 wells in concentrations ranging between 1.10 and 24.46ppb. Aquifer lithology, groundwater flow directions, type of agricultural activity are major factors in controlling pesticide concentrations in groundwater. The highest values were measured where the aquifer consists of gravel and sand sediments, combined with intensive agricultural activities, followed by sand-silt aquifer. The lowest concentrations were found in boreholes where carbonate aquifer is the main source of water which indicates that other source of water flow into the system. The results of this study demonstrate that these pesticides are used heavily and in an improper way in the lower Jordan Valley, increasing the risk of adverse environmental and public health effects. Much attention should be given to addressing the potential problem of environmental and groundwater contamination by these pesticides.This study was funded through BARD-project /USDA

Molluscan diversity influenced by mangrove habitat in the khors of Qatar

The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Qatar is a rapidly developing region within the Arabian Gulf, where monitoring of changes in benthic biodiversity and its functioning is needed. The influence of mangroves and seasonality on the nearshore subtidal molluscan diversity at three distinct khors (nearshore tidal bays) – natural mangroves (Al Dhakhira), planted mangroves (Al Mafyar) and no-mangroves (Dawhat Zekreet) – are investigated in this study. This study concludes that even the sub-tidal area is influenced by mangroves, and mangroves increase the diversity of molluscs compared to the site that lacks mangroves. The maximum salinity (59.8 psu) was observed at Dawhat Zekreet during summer, and the minimum (41.44 psu) at Al Dhakhira in winter. Chlorophyll a level was low for all the khors, and rarely exceeded 1 μg/L, depicting oligotrophic waters. Al Dhakhira demonstrated the highest molluscan species richness (32), and shared 28 species in common with Al Mafyar. Dawhat Zekreet had the fewest mollusc species number and no mangroves. When cumulative diversity over all seasons was considered, Dawhat Zekreet exhibited the lowest species richness; Al Dhakhira, the highest. Some mangrove regions have been already utilized for developmental activities, and Qatar needs to continue the program of mangrove conservation as a vital habitat for molluscs.Open access funding provided by the Qatar National Library. Part of this work has been supported by the QU-NIO joint IRCC project (No. IRCC-2019-002)

IMPLEMENTATION OF GYPSEOUS SOIL-ASPHALT STABILIZATION TECHNIQUE FOR BASE COURSE CONSTRUCTION

The aim of this research work is to study the effect of stabilizing gypseous soil, which covers vast areas in the middle, west and south parts of Iraq, using liquid asphalt on its strength properties to be used as a base course layer replacing the traditional materials of coarse aggregate and broken stones which are scarce at economical prices and hauling distances. Gypseous soil brought from Al-Ramadi City, west of Iraq, with gypsum content of 66.65%, medium curing cutback asphalt (MC-30), and hydrated lime are used in this study. The conducted tests on untreated and treated gypseous soil with different percentages of medium curing cutback asphalt (MC-30), water, and lime were: unconfined compression strength, and one dimensional confined compression under both dry and absorbed test conditions. The test results showed that stabilizing gypseous soil using the optimum fluid content of 16% (5% cutback asphalt+11% water) have improved the unconfined compressive strength, compressibility, rebound consolidation, and waterproofing of gypseous soil, but under absorbed condition the stabilized gypseous soil using cutback asphalt only did not satisfy the requirements for base course construction, therefore it was decided to use lime additive to improve the properties of soil-cutback mixture under absorbed condition

The CCP13 FibreFix program suite: semi-automated analysis of diffraction patterns from non-crystalline materials

FibreFix integrates various programs for the analysis of non-crystalline diffraction patterns into a single user-friendly package. The main features of FibreFix are outlined and some of its applications are illustrated

Sources, spatial distribution and characteristics of marine litter along the west coast of Qatar

The spatial distribution, sources and characteristics of marine litter (ML) from 36 locations spread over 12 beaches along the west coast of Qatar have been assessed. A total of 2376 ML items with varying sizes were found with an average abundance of 1.98 items/m2. The order of abundance of ML along the coast was as follows: plastics (71.4%) > metal (9.3%) > glass (5.1%) > paper (4.4%) > fabric (4.0%) > rubber (3.9%) > processed wood (2.0%). Locations in the south and northwest coasts of Qatar had significantly higher concentrations of ML. Surprisingly, nearly 47% of the beached polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles were derived from the countries bordering the Arabian/Persian Gulf (Gulf), and most of them were produced in the last 2 years. The plastic materials were drifted by winds and currents to the Qatar coast. Gulf circulation provides evidence to the pathways of ML beached on the Qatar coast.We acknowledge ORS, QU for awarding the Project (QUEX-ESC-QP-TM-18/19), funded by the Qatar Petroleum

Rapid detection and identification of poultry Salmonella serotypes using multiplex PCR assay

Recently, rapid multiplex PCR assay has been used widely worldwide to identify and screen Salmonella and their most important serovars in the poultry industry without the need of the serological examination. This study designed to determine different Salmonella serotypes that isolated from chicken using multiplex PCR assay. Layer and broiler chicken internal organs including: liver, bile, spleen, heart, yolk sac, ceca, joint, ovary and oviduct were used to isolate Salmonella sp. Sixty (60) Salmonella isolates were subjected to amplification of invA gene (invasion gene) for Salmonellae sp.; fliC gene (flageller filament protein) for Salmonella typhimurium and sefA gene (fimberial gene) for Salmonella enteritidis and Salmonella gallinerum – pullorum. Each primer pairs was optimize individually to ensure that each amplicon had the correct size. Then, Salmonella isolates passed to amplification by use three sets of primers invA, fliC and sefA simultaneously in order to detect the genus Salmonella and their types in single reaction tube. The results of this study showed that all Salmonella isolates were positive for invA gene amplified sequence. Moreover, the serotypes of Salmonella typhimurium and Salmonella enteritidis were identified by the presence of the specific amplified products to fliC gene for S. typhimurium and sefA gene for S. enteritidis and Salmonella gallinerum-pullorum. In conclusion, this study approved that applying multiplex PCR assay revealed the same sensitivity and specificity of uniplex PCR. Moreover, this technique was easy, reliable and save time and cost. The authors recommend to implement the combination between, routine multiplex PCR test and traditional culture methods to approach the effective and more accurate profile for the prevalence of Salmonella in flocks of poultry in Iraq

Effects of bottom substratum on survival and growth of early juveniles of blue swimming crab, (Linnaeus, 1758) in captivity

Aim: Cannibalism remains a limiting factor during the nursery culture of crabs. This study was undertaken to improve the rearing techniques by investigating the impact of bottom substratum on crablet survival and growth. The knowledge gained from the research will be useful for the communal seed culture and development of crab farming, which are important factors regarding farmers' job stability in the future. Methodology: Blue swimming crab, Portunus pelagicus (first settled (C1 crabs); initial average weight and SD of 0.02 ± 0.01g) were cultured in glass aquarium (90 x 44 x 34 cm) and their survival and growth were assessed after 22 days of culture in four types of substratum such as control (none), sand, soil, or sand + soil. All treatments had 25 juvenile crabs, each of which was triplicated. Feeding was done twice a day (9 am and 5 pm) to apparent satiation. Results: Survival of early juvenile crabs cultured with sand was substantially higher at 65.33 ± 6.11% than those cultured with soil, sand + soil or control at 29.33 ± 10.07%, 28.00 ± 8.00%, and 21.33 ± 6.11%, respectively. Growth performance (such as final weight, weight gain and specific growth rate) of the early juvenile of P. pelagicus in all treatments were not significantly different (p>0.05). Interpretation: Overall, the best survival was achieved with sand substratum and can be recommended as a mean of reducing cannibalism during the early nursery rearing of blue swimming crab juveniles under captive culture conditions

Sentinel-2 image transformation methods for mapping oil spill – A case study with Wakashio oil spill in the Indian Ocean, off Mauritius

Although several indices have been constructed and available at the Index database (IDB) for Sentinel-2 satellite to map and study several earth resources, no indices have been developed to map oil spill. We constructed band ratios (5 + 6)/7, (3 + 4)/2, (11+12)/8 and 3/2, (3 + 4)/2, (6 + 7)/5 using the high-resolution MSI (multi-spectral instrument) visible-near infrared-shortwave infrared spectral bands of Sentinel-2 by summing-up the bands representing the shoulders of absorption features as numerator and the band located nearest to the absorption feature as denominator to discriminate oil spill, and demonstrate the potential of this method to map the Wakashio oil spill which occurred in the Indian Ocean, off Mauritius. The resulted images discriminated the oil spill well. We also decorrelated the spectral bands 4, 3 and 2 by studying the spectral band absorptions and discriminated the spill as very thick, thick and thin. The results of decorrelation stretch method exhibited the distribution of types of oil spill in a different tone, distinctly. Both the image transformation methods (band ratios and decorrelation stretch methods) showed their capability to map oil spills, and these methods are recommended to use for similar spectral bands of other sensors to map oil spills. • This study demonstrated the application of band ratios and decorrelation stretch methods to map oil spill. • The methods discriminated the oil spill off Mauritius, and showed spill thicknesses from the Sentinel-2 data. • The new methods are recommended to use for the spectral bands of other sensors to map oil spill.This work was supported by the Qatar University’s International Research Collaboration Co-Funds project (IRCC-2019-002). The authors are thankful to the Copernicus, European Space Agency for sharing the Sentinel-2 data through the Sentinel open access hub. The authors are thankful to Dr. Damià Barceló, the Editor in Chief and anonymous reviewers of the journal for their valuable reviews and constructive comments that have helped to present the work lucidly. The authors are thankful to Dr. Damià Barceló, Editor in Chief and anonymous reviewers of the journal for their valuable reviews, providing comments and suggestions that have helped to present the work lucidly. Open access funding provided by the Qatar National Library