Fish Diversity and Fish Assemblage Structure in Seagrass Meadows at Sikao Bay, Trang Province, Thailand

Abstract

We investigated the relationship between environmental variables as descriptors of the fish community, in terms of species diversity indices and fish assemblage patterns, in seagrass meadows at Sikao Bay, Trang Province, Thailand. Fish data and water quality parameters were collected from January to December 2012. A total of 10,596 fish specimens of 97 taxa in 48 families from four stations, Kham Bay (7˚30'9.21''N, 99˚18'7.67''E), Boonkong Bay (7˚31'2.49''N, 99˚17'40.09''E), Ban Pak Klong (7˚36'17.67''N, 99˚16'32.89''E) and Sai Cape (7˚38'30.19''N, 99˚14'49.85''E), were collected using gillnets of three different mesh sizes. The three most diverse families were Leiognathidae, Carangidae and Tetraodontidae, respectively. The dominant species were Atherinomorus duodecimalis, Sillago sihama and Pelates quadrilineatus. Specimens were highly abundant in July and less so in January and species richness was high in July and less so in March. Fish assemblages were classified into two patterns and the average of the Shannon index was 2.7. The environmental parameters in each month were analyzed by one-way ANOVA which did not show significant difference (P > 0.05) of pH, orthophosphate, wind speed and rainfall. Fish diversity and assemblage, and environmental parameters, were categorized into four groups. These could be promoted to local fisheries so that conservation programs cpuld be set up to ensure the ecological sustainability of seagrass meadows.

Species composition and diversity of fishes from the seagrass habitat of Lawas, Sarawak, Malaysia

“…The pink ear emperor fish, L. lentjan, is a very important commercial species for marine fisheries in the subtropical and tropical regions and its juveniles have been reported to inhabit and utilize seagrass and mangrove habitats (Ditch, 2015;Rohani et al, 2013). In the Lawas seagrass bed, L. lentjan was recorded as the most dominant and important fish species, however this was not observed in other seagrass beds (Sasekumar et al, 1989;Arshad et al, 2006;Phinrub et al, 2015). There were also some variations in the dominant species/families of fish recorded from the seagrass ecosystems compared to other seagrass ecosystems:-Pervagor and Apogon dominance in Sungai Pulai seagrass beds, Johor (Sasekumar et al, 1989), Leiognathidae, Tetraodon nigroviridis dominance in Merchang seagrass bed, Terengganu (Arshad et al, 2006), and Antherinomorus duodecimalis, Sillagosihama and Pelates quadrilineatus in seagrass beds of Sikao bay, Thailand (Phinrub et al, 2015).…”

“…Changes in the total and dominant species are often related to geographical locations and different types of seagrass habitats (Arshad et al, 2001). Fish species from the family Gerreidae such as G. erythrourus and G. oyena are highly dominant temporarily and permanently in seagrass habitats (Phinrub et al, 2015). For instance, another fish species, Illisha elongata, is more dominant in coastal waters and mangrove habitats in Sarawak:-3.9% in coastal waters of Bintulu (Nyanti et al, 2014) and 5.8% in Sibuti river estuary (Hoque et al, 2015), as compared to the current seagrass ecosystem (2%).…”

DISTRIBUSI SPASIAL IKAN BARONANG Siganus canaliculatus Park, 1797 PADA HABITAT PADANG LAMUN BERBEDA DI TELUK AMBON DALAM

“…Lamun adalah tumbuhan berbunga yang hidup pada perairan pasang surut, berperan sebagai pelindung dan penstabil garis pantai (Christianen et al, 2013;Ondiviela et al, 2014), produsen primer (Erftemeijer et al, 1993), pensiklus nutrien (Erftemeijer & Middelburg, 1995), tempat proses biogeokimia (Thangaradjou et al, http://journal.ipb.ac.id/index.php/jurnalikt 2015), habitat makrofauna bentik (Junhui et al, 2018), habitat ikan (Erftemeijer & Allen, 1993;Phinrub et al, 2015 ), pembesaran ikan juvenil (Jones, 2014;McDevitt-Irwin et al, 2016;Jianguo et al, 2018), sumber makanan ikan juvenil (Nakamura et al, 2012;Kwak et al, 2015); sumber makanan langsung hewan herbivora (Scott et al, 2018); penghubung distribusi spasial ikan antar habitat (habitat ontogenetik) pada perairan pesisir (Campbell et al, 2011;Whitfield, 2017;Lee et al, 2019); pendukung stok perikanan (Unsworth et al, 2010), ketahanan pangan (Unsworth et al, 2014), sumber mata pencaharian nelayan (Syukur et al, 2017), dan mendukung kegiatan perikanan (subsisten, komersial dan rekreasi) global (De la Torre-Castro et al, 2014;Nordlund et al, 2018;Jeyabaskaran et al, 2018;Unsworth et al, 2019). Habitat padang lamun umumnya pada perairan pantai, estuari, daerah intertidal, subtidal sampai terumbu karang dengan beragam tipe substrat (Waycott et al, 2004).…”

Threats to Seagrass Ecology and Indicators of the Importance of Seagrass Ecological Services in the Coastal Waters of East Lombok, Indonesia

“…The diversity index value of fish found in the study area is relatively equal to the index value diversity of fish with two locations of seagrass beds. The location of seagrass beds both are in Sikao Bay, Trang Province, Thailand with the value of the Shannon-Wiener index (H') = 2.7 (Phinrub et al, 2015) and, in Formoso River Estuary-Pernambuco, Brazil (H') = 2.66 (Pereira et al, 2010). Nevertheless, have considerable differences with the value of fish diversity on seagrass beds in the Jordanian coast of the Gulf of Aqaba (H') = 1.4 (Khalaf et al, 2012).…”

“…Atherinomorus duodecimalis, Sillago sihama and Pelates quadrilineatus dominant species in seagrass meadows at Sikao Bay, Trang Province, Thailand (Phinrub et al, 2015) and Sillago aeolus, Sillago sihama and Gerres erythrourus the highest of occurrence frequency in seagrass beds at Ban Pak Klong, Trang Province, Thailand (Phinrub et al, 2014). Furthermore, Siganus canaliculatus, Aeoliscus strigatus, Syngnathoides biaculeatus, Acreichthys tomentosus and Paracentropogon longispinis dominant species in Ambon Bay Indonesia (Ambo-Rappe et al, 2013) and the Engraulidae family and Lethrinus harak, the most abundant being from in the Marine National Park at Wakatobi, Indonesia (Unsworth et al, 2007) and Chromis sp.…”