Persian Gulf desert and semi-desert
The Persian Gulf desert and semi-desert ecoregion (WWF ID: PA1323) covers the desert coastal plain of the northwest Persian Gulf, that is, on the northeast Arabian Peninsula, from Kuwait in the north to a small coastal sector in the United Arab Emirates to the southeast. Location and description Bounded on the east by the Persian Gulf, the ecoregion is effectively surrounded on its other sides by the Arabian desert and East Sahero-Arabian xeric shrublands ecoregion. The inland reaches of the ecoregion are a flat extension of the coastal plain, ending at the red-brown dunes of the ad-Dahna Desert and in the south at the edge of the "Empty Quarter" of Saudi Arabia, the Rub' al Khali. The maximum elevation in the ecoregion is . The geology of the plains are marine sediments laid down in the Tertiary (66 to 3 million years ago), when the region was intermittently submerged. Because of limestone, the sands of the ecoregion are whiter than those of the other deserts of the Arabian Peninsula, which are mostly igneous and metamorphic. Along the coast there are salt-flat depressions known as sabkhas. Climate The climate of the ecoregion is Hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification (BWk)). This