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A total of 1951 species of freshwater and marine fishes belonging to 704 genera and 186 families are recorded in Malaysia. Almost half (48%) are currently threatened to some degree, while nearly one third (27%) mostly from the marine and coral habitats require urgent scientific studies to evaluate their status. Freshwater habitats encompass the highest percentage of threatened fish species (87%) followed by estuarine habitats (66%). Of the 32 species of highly threatened (HT) species, 16 are freshwater and 16 are largely marine-euryhaline species. Fish extinctions in Malaysia are confined to two freshwater species, but both freshwater and marine species are being increasingly threatened by largely habitat loss or modification (76%), overfishing (27%) and by-catch (23%). The most important threat to freshwater fishes is habitat modification and overfishing, while 35 species are threatened due to their endemism. Brackish-water, euryhaline and marine fishes are threatened mainly by overfishing, by-catch and habitat modification. Sedimentation (pollution) additionally threatens coral-reef fishes. The study provides recommendations to governments, fish managers, scientists and stakeholders to address the increasing and unabated extinction risks faced by the Malaysian fish fauna.

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ABSTRACT-Stomach-content analyses revealed that the white prawn Penaeus merguiensis d e Man, in the Angsd Bank-Klang Strait waters (Straits of Malacca), feed on a variety of food -depending on the locality and availability of food items. In the nursery ground, newly-arrived pelagic postlarvae are carnivores, feeding largely on copepods. Epibenthic postlarvae and juveniles are carnivorous detritivores, consuming mainly organic detritus; they also prey on small animals like foraminiferans, copepods, larval bivalves and brachyuran larvae. In the maturation ground, subadults are detritivorous carnivores, feeding mainly on large crustaceans, like species of Acetes and mysids; in lesser amounts, on organic detritus. In the spawning ground, adults are detritivore-cdrnivores consuming equal amounts organic detritus and a variety of large crustaceans, polychaetes, molluscs and fishes. However. there are indications that the prawn prefer animal food if available. Organic detrltus is considered a food supplement; its utilization a s a food source becomes important to the maturing prawn when i t assumes a benthic existence.

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Offsetting carbon (C) emissions and reducing nitrogen (N) pollution have been goals of mangrove restoration programs around the world. There is a common, yet dubious expectation that mangrove restoration will result in immediate and perpetual delivery of ecosystem services. There are expected time lags between mangrove clearing and C and N losses, and between restoration and C and N gains. Obtaining accurate rates of losses and gains requires frequent and long-term sampling, which is expensive and time consuming. To address this knowledge gap, we used a chronosequence of mangrove forests in mangroves in Matang Mangrove Forest Reserve (MMFR) in Malaysia, a region with one of the most C dense forests in the world. In this site, we assessed the ecosystem C and N stocks, including soil, downed wood, downed litter, and trees. The objective was to measure C and N changes through time. After mangrove clearing, C and N losses in soil and downed wood were rapid, with stocks halved after just one year. In the first 10 years after replantation, the forest recovered quickly, with rates of C accumulation of 9.5 Mg C ha-1 yr-1. After ten years, the rate of accumulation decreased to 2.8 Mg C ha-1 yr-1. However, 40 years after replantation, mangroves were still about 26% lower in C and 15% lower in N compared to our reference forest. The trajectory of recovery of C and N stocks in these forests was different among mangrove components: forest litter recovered rapidly, but downed wood and soil recovered much slower. Programs aimed at reducing C emissions and N pollution should consider that there are temporal lags and ecosystem trade-offs when assessing the effectiveness of mangrove protection and restoration as climate change mitigation strategies.