Vulnerability of the marine ecosystem to climate change impacts in the Arabian Gulfd-an urgent need for more research

Climate change, represented by ever-rising ocean temperatures, is a mounting threat to the marine ecosystem and its services. This is most evident in the longitudinal and depth-related migrations of the ectothermic species. Although the impacts of climate change on the marine ecosystem of the Arabian Gulf are expected to be exacerbated-dowing to its semi-enclosed basin that limits species range shift, extreme environmental conditions, overfishing, and pollution-very few studies have been carried out to evaluate such impacts. Here, we conduct a systematic review of literature over the period 1950-2018 to assess the status of knowledge about climate change impacts on the Arabian Gulf's marine ecosystem and fisheries resources. We found that this region suffers a significant research gap in this critical subject, with only a handful of studies that explicitly addresses the effects of climate change. Our finding raises an urgent need for initiating long-term monitoring programs, along with establishing effective transboundary institutions to advance the current knowledge in climate change. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.