A New Approach to Mapping Cultural Ecosystem Services

According to various sources, Southern Morocco has stood out as an outstanding tourist destination in recent decades, with global appeal. Dakhla City, including Dakhla Bay, classified by the Convention on Wetlands in 2005 as a Wetland of International Importance, offers visitors various entertainment opportunities at many city sites. Therefore, human activity and social benefits should be considered in conjunction with the need to safeguard the ecosystems and maintain the Ecosystem Services (ES). This study aims to provide an overview of the tourism dynamics and hotspots related to cultural ecosystem services in Dakhla Bay. The landscape attributes are used along with an InVEST model to detect the distribution of preferences for the Cultural Ecosystem Services (CESs), map the hotspots, and identify the spatial correlations between features such as the landscape and visiting rate to understand which elements of nature attract people to the locations around the study area. Geotagged photos posted to the Flickr™ website between 2005 and 2017 were used to approximate the number of tourist visits. The results showed that tourism suffered several dips in 2005–2017 and that tourist visits are currently rising. Additionally, an estimated annual tourist visit rate shows that tourism in Dakhla Bay has been growing steadily by 2%.

Metal contamination of the macrobenthic fauna of the Dakhla Bay (South of Morocco): An ecotoxicological diagnostic and environmental perspective

This ecotoxicological research has focused on the metal contamination study of wild and livestock macrobenthic fauna in the Bay of Dakhla city. During the last decade, this coastal town in the extreme south-west of Morocco has known a considerable and accelerated socio-economic development. This latter could induce negative repercussions on the bay ecological state and its environment. Therefore, samples of mussels (Perna perna), hollow oysters (Crassostrea gigas) and knives (Solen marginatus) were collected in various locations in the Dakhla Bay during June and December 2011 in order to determine their trace metals levels: Lead, Cadmium, Zinc and Copper. The stud-ied species showed different behavior with respect to metal contamination: i) oysters tend to accumulate on average more than 2 mg/Kg dw. of Cd, and 400 mg/Kg dw. of Zn, ii) mussels assimilate Cu better with grades up to 29 mg/Kg dw., iii) knives have the lowest levels of trace metals, iv) Pb assayed showed a levels below the threshold of detection at different sites and for all samples. The difference in storage capacity would be allocated to multiple biological and environmental factors governing the spatial and temporal var-iation, more or less significant (p <0.05). Through the correlation between contaminated sites and urban and industrial activities points, it may be possi-ble to conclude that the multiple discharges related to the different human activities in Dakhla city are the main source of metal contamination observed in Dakhla bay bivalves. So ecological management of these discharges is needed to curb this pollution and avoid the associated health risks.

Impact of economic development on the dynamics of phytoplankton and physic-chemical quality of Dakhla Bay (South of Morocco)

A detailed monitoring of physic-chemical parameters and a complete inven-torization of phytoplankton species was conducted from May 2011 to May 2012 in Dakhla bay in south of Morocco. This study comes to bridge the gap of environmental data which has started since 2000 by Moroccan national institute of fisheries research (INRH) in this area. The results showed a differ-ence in the distribution of physic-chemical parameters (especially nutrient and dissolved oxygen). In addition, inventory of phytoplankton species has allowed identifying three different groups: diatoms (Rhizosolenia spp, Lepto-cylindrus spp, Thalassionema spp, Pseudo- nizschia spp.,...) represented 92% of the total phytoplankton flora, dinoflagellates (Scrippsiella sp, Prorocen-trum sp, Gymnodinium sp.,...) with 7%, while Silicoflagellates (Dictyocha sp) contributed with 1%. Seasonal fluctuation of these groups was governed, in first order, by the importance of upwelling in the region during the summer (intense phytoplankton activity). Yet this activity was much stronger in the PK25 site for tourism activity that suggested a remarkable anthropogenic input. An occurrence of Scrippsiella species (45% Hoja Iliamera growing area) and Prorocentrum sp (41% Duna Blanca aquaculture area), recognized as species of colored waters, was permanent at the study sites. Alexandrium sp represented 1% of the total dinoflagellates in Duna Blanca (<1% in the other sites), whereas Dinophysis sp (<1%) was observed in Lassarga (the entrance bay) and PK25 only. The latter two species are potentially the cause of PSP toxins's production (Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning) and DSP (Diarrheic Shellfish Poisoning) source of contamination of bivalves in the Bay during 2004 and 2006.