{"id":11886,"date":"2026-10-31T16:56:06","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T16:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agri-research-journal.net\/SjarEn\/?p=11886"},"modified":"2026-10-31T16:57:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T16:57:00","slug":"structure-and-diversity-of-benthic-fish-assemblages-off-the-latakia-coast-eastern-mediterranean-sea-a-pilot-bottom-trawl-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agri-research-journal.net\/SjarEn\/?p=11886","title":{"rendered":"Structure and diversity of benthic fish assemblages off the Latakia coast (eastern Mediterranean Sea): a pilot bottom trawl study"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;\"><strong>Lana Khrema<sup>1*<\/sup>, Amina Alnesser<sup>2<\/sup>, Hasan Alkusairy<sup>3<\/sup> and Ali Othman<sup>3<\/sup><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;\">1 Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Latakia University, Syria.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;\">2 Department of Basic Sciences, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Latakia University, Latakia, Syria.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;\">3 General Commission for Fisheries Resources and Aquatic Life, Latakia, Syria.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;\">(*Corresponding author: Lana Khrema. Email: <a href=\"mailto:lana-khrema@latakia-univ.edu.sy\">lana-khrema@latakia-univ.edu.sy<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;\">Received: 28\/ 3\/ 2026\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Accepted: 13\/ 5\/ 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times; font-size: 17px;\"><strong>Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times; font-size: 17px;\">In August and September 2024, three bottom trawl hauls were conducted off the coast of Latakia at depths ranging from 55 to 140 m as a pilot study to describe the structure of benthic fish assemblages and provide an initial evaluation of trawling-related patterns. The Shannon\u2013Weaver diversity index (H\u2032) ranged between 1.3 and 1.7. Hill number q\u2081 values varied from 3.67 to 5.57 effective species, while q\u2082 values indicated numerical dominance by a limited number of species, which was further supported by Pielou\u2019s evenness index (J\u2032=0.59\u20130.70). Based on the Index of Relative Importance (IRI), <em>Pagellus erythrinus<\/em> and <em>Pagellus acarne<\/em> were identified as dominant species. Catch per unit effort (CPUE) ranged from 6.9 to 33.06 kg h\u207b\u00b9.These results reflect the current status of benthic fish assemblages during the study period and provide an essential baseline for future ecological and fisheries studies in the region.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;\"><strong>Keywords:<\/strong> Benthic fish assemblages, Biodiversity, Hill Numbers, CPUE, Bottom trawling, Latakia coast.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;\">\u00a0Full paper in English: <a href=\"http:\/\/agri-research-journal.net\/SjarEn\/wp-content\/uploads\/v13n5p32.pdf\">PDF<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lana Khrema1*, Amina Alnesser2, Hasan Alkusairy3 and Ali Othman3 1 Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Latakia University, Syria. 2 Department of Basic Sciences, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Latakia University, Latakia, Syria. 3 General Commission for Fisheries Resources &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/agri-research-journal.net\/SjarEn\/?p=11886\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sjar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agri-research-journal.net\/SjarEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agri-research-journal.net\/SjarEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agri-research-journal.net\/SjarEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agri-research-journal.net\/SjarEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agri-research-journal.net\/SjarEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11886"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/agri-research-journal.net\/SjarEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11889,"href":"https:\/\/agri-research-journal.net\/SjarEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11886\/revisions\/11889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agri-research-journal.net\/SjarEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agri-research-journal.net\/SjarEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agri-research-journal.net\/SjarEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}