The fish and prawn communities of a Malaysian coastal mangrove system, with comparisons to adjacent mud flats and inshore waters

Abstract

The fish and prawn communities of four coastal habitats in Selangor, Malaysia: (1) coastal mangrove swamps; (2) mud flats, including subtidal regions; (3) near inshore waters; and (4) far inshore waters, were examined with respect to species composition, abundance, diversity, similarity and sexual maturity. The number of fish species sampled for these habitats were 119, 70, 58 and 92 species respectively. For prawns, the number of species were 9, 16, 8 and 14 respectively. The mangrove community comprised 63–99% and 100% juvenile fish and prawn respectively. Despite a high species richness, it was low in fish species diversity due to the dominance (70%) of six species of fish of low economic value. In contrast, the prawn community was poor in species, and was dominated by threePenaeus spp. of high economic value. The intertidal mudflat community is largely transient and comprised mainly of species from both the mangrove and subtidal habitats. Fifty-six per cent of the fish population and 62·6% of the prawn population were juveniles. Many of the inshore fish and prawn species were also common species found in mangrove and mudflat habitats. Similarity coefficients indicate that the inshore fish and prawn communities are more similar to those of mud flats than mangroves. However, maturity studies indicate that only five species of fish are true migrants, that the majority of the fish species (juveniles and adults) are ubiquitous with a distribution that extends several nautical miles offshore. Results of this study indicate that tropical coastal mangroves function more importantly as feeding grounds than as nursery grounds for juveniles of commercially important fish species. Mangroves and mud flats are utilized during flood tides by many periodic foragers from the inshore waters. However, this study confirms that coastal mangroves and mud flats are important nursery areas for commercially important prawn species.