QU scientific team to survey biodiversity in northwestern regions of Qatar

Ascience team from the Centre for Environmental Sciences at QatarUniversity will start a scientific research trip to the northwesternregions of Qatar, including Fasht Edibil and neighbouring areas, onboard the Advanced Research Vessel (Jinan) and a number of speedboatsequipped for such studies.The aim of this scientific trip is toconduct a detailed survey of the environmental and biological diversityof the region, as well as to study deep marine sediments, water movementand distribution of sea currents, in addition to air quality.QatarUniversity said in a press release that the research team comprisesspecialists in various fields of marine and biophysics from differentnationalities including Britain, New Zealand, Hungary, Brazil, Turkeyand the Philippines, as well as specialised Qatari scientists.Thestudy will provide new information on these areas, which are consideredto be important food reserves as well as their nature, which is a targetfor tourism investment.Jinan research vessel is the latest of itskind in the Gulf region, and can sail in relatively remote areas such asthe Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Oman, the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf.Thevessel has an advanced satellite-powered stabilisation system with fivemain laboratories equipped with the latest scientific devices. It hasthe ability to collect most of the research samples (chemical, physicaland biological).