Observing Mollusca Benthic Diversity to Measure the Success of the Implementation of Mulung Culture as an Effort to Conserve Aquatics in the Waters of Lapang-Batang Island, Alor Regency, East Nusa Tenggara.

Abstract

Mulung culture from an ecological perspective is to allows the environment to recover, traditionally. Mulung is a customary process, related to the closure of water areas for the extraction of aquatic resources. The impact of the implementation of the Mulung cultural tradition, the population of resources increases. This study aims to determine the benthic mollusk community in the Mulung area to measure the success rate of Mulung implementation. This information is needed as a starting point for sustainable fisheries development. This research uses the quadratic transect method and free collection. Then, the community structure was calculated using the diversity index, species evenness, species richness, and species density value, then continued by observing the quantitative similarity between locations calculated by the similarity index. The results showed that the species composition of benthic mollusks found in the Mulung area was 32 species, with a total of 261 individuals. The benthic mollusks that lived in the Mulung area had a Diversity Index (H’) value of 3.12 high category, Richness Index Value (R) of 5.75 is classified as high, the value of the evenness index of species (E) is 0.90, the evenness level of benthic mollusks is high and stable, the value of the dominance index (C) is 0.1, in the category no species dominates. The highest relative abundance of benthic Mollusca species overall with a value of 46.15% was owned by Ornopsis glanni species and the lowest relative abundance was Cypraea moneta, 6.90% value, the highest species density value with a value of 2.53 ind/m2, namely Ornopsis glanni and the lowest species density value is Diodora mississipppiensis, the value is 0.12 ind/m2. Meanwhile, the overall density of benthic Mollusca species obtained during the study was 17.40 ind/m2.