The East Arabian fog shrublands and sand desert is a deserts and xeric shrublandecoregion in Oman. It encompasses two areas of coastal desert in the eastern Arabian Peninsula, the Wahiba Sands in eastern Oman, and the Huqf region to the southwest. The ecoregion has a total area of 1,769 km2.[1]
The northern section encompasses the Wahiba Sands, a dune field that extends inland from the Arabian Sea coast. The southern section, known as the Huqf region, is bounded on the east by the Arabian Sea and on the west by the Huqf escarpment and Jiddat al-Harasis plateau. The Huqf region's landscape is more varied, with gravel deserts, salt flats or ‘sabkha’, rugged hills and outcrops, and coastal white sugar dunes near Al Khaluf.[1]
Climate
The region has a desert climate, with less than 50 mm of rainfall annually. Temperatures are warm throughout the year, reaching up to 40° C in the warmer summer months and averaging 25°C in the winter months. The region has a strong marine influence, with moisture-bearing winds from the Arabian Sea in winter and the southwest monsoon in summer that form fogs which provide moisture to plants from condensation.[1]
Resident and migratory birds live in the woodlands and dune scrub, and the coastal dunes are important stopovers for migratory birds.[1]
Delineation
The East Arabian fog shrublands and sand desert was designated a distinct ecoregion by Dinerstein et al. in their 2017 revision of the Earth's terrestrial ecoregions.[3] In the 2001 ecoregion scheme by Olson et al. the Wahiba Sands were part of the Arabian Desert ecoregion, while the Huqf region was divided between the Arabian Peninsula coastal fog desert and Red Sea Nubo–Sindian tropical desert and semi-desert ecoregions.[4]
↑David M. Olson, Eric Dinerstein, Eric D. Wikramanayake, Neil D. Burgess, George V. N. Powell, Emma C. Underwood, Jennifer A. D'amico, Illanga Itoua, Holly E. Strand, John C. Morrison, Colby J. Loucks, Thomas F. Allnutt, Taylor H. Ricketts, Yumiko Kura, John F. Lamoreux, Wesley W. Wettengel, Prashant Hedao, Kenneth R. Kassem, Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World: A New Map of Life on Earth: A new global map of terrestrial ecoregions provides an innovative tool for conserving biodiversity, BioScience, Volume 51, Issue 11, November 2001, Pages 933–938, https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2001)051[0933:TEOTWA]2.0.CO;2
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