Doha, Qatar: The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MECC) commenced a research expedition to monitor the marine environment at Qatar's Exclusive Economic Zone (ECC), in collaboration with Qatar University's Environmental Sciences Center.
Conducted by Janan Research Vessel (Janan RV) under the supervision of the MECC's Environmental Monitoring and Inspection Department, the three-day program monitors the quality of the marine environment via a team of marine environment specialists and researchers.
Dr. Mai Mohammed Al Ghanem, from the Environmental Monitoring and Inspection Department said the team would collect sediment and marine water samples from specific locations, to measure the key physical and chemical environmental variables such as water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen saturation and turbidity, in addition to samples of plant plankton using nets, along the depth of the water column from the surface to bottom. The researchers will classify and identify the species of these organisms later, she added.
Assistant Director of the Environmental Monitoring and Inspection Department, Abdullah Al Khulaifi said the program would have positive reflections on Qatar's marine environment via monitoring the biological, chemical and physical variables as well as comparing marine environment indicators to those of previous years.
Contrary to the previous programs that collected samples near the coastline, this year's research expedition will gather seawater samples from various depths and locations far from the shore within Qatars waters, he added.
