red sea is the waterway that connects the mediterranean sea with red sea.
which waterway connects the mediterranean sea with red sea?
red sea
steinitz traveled to palestine for zoological excursions in the second and third decades of the twentieth century. he explored, documented and analyzed his findings of fishes of the eastern mediterranean basin, commenced scientific collections of fishes, and was the first to publish a comprehensive fisheries research of palestine. his investigations were pioneering in two scientific respects: first, he discovered new marine organisms in the region, and second, he found fishes of indo-pacific origin along the coast of palestine. the suez canal, a man-made connection between the red sea and the mediterranean sea, was opened only a few decades prior to his investigations in palestine. the presence of indo-pacific species along the mediterranean coast of palestine revealed to steinitz an influx of fishes from the red sea - a northern branch of the indian ocean - into the east mediterranean sea via the suez canal waterway, and it suggested that changes had occurred in the marine life of the south east mediterranean sea due to human intervention. he argued that with the new situation “…it is the only place on earth where two quite different zoological marine provinces have come into direct touch with one another” and that the canal “…connects two oceans having each different fauna from the other”. steinitz was among the first to call for monitoring the impact of the opening of the suez canal on the levant biota. studies of the invasions of red sea species into the mediterranean sea, and their ecological consequences for the mediterranean marine biota, have proliferated since then and are ongoing in the twenty first century. the phenomenon of migration of marine species form the red sea through the suez canal into the mediterranean sea is now termed lessepsian migration.
walter steinitz
because the surface of the red sea is slightly higher in elevation than the eastern mediterranean, the canal serves as a tidal strait by which red sea water pours into the mediterranean. the bitter lakes, which are natural hypersaline lakes that form part of the canal, blocked the migration of red sea species into the mediterranean for many decades, but as the salinity of the lakes gradually equalized with that of the red sea, the barrier to migration was removed, and plants and animals from the red sea have begun to colonize the eastern mediterranean. the red sea, an extension of the indian ocean, is generally saltier and less nutrient-rich than the mediterranean, an extension of the atlantic ocean, so red sea species, able to tolerate harsh environments, have advantages over atlantic species in the conditions of the eastern mediterranean. accordingly, most migrations between the two bodies of water are invasions of red sea species into the mediterranean, and relatively few migrations occur in the opposite direction. the construction of the aswan high dam across the nile river in the 1960s reduced the inflow of fresh water and nutrient-rich silt from the nile into the eastern mediterranean, making conditions in the eastern mediterranean even more like those of the red sea, thereby increasing the impact of the invasions and facilitating the occurrence of new ones.
lessepsian migration