Marine Phytoplankton in the Northern Region of Straits of Malacca. Area 1: Pulau

Songsong, Pulau Bidan and Pulau Telor

Sazlina, M.S*., Nithiyaa, N., Mahadi, M, Zulfigar, Y. and

Aileen Tan, S.H.

Why??

Phytoplankton can be:

- beneficial : acting as biological indicators,

where their presence, absence, abundance and

distribution are used to determine the quality

of an aquatic environment (Reynold, 2006).

- Harmful: HABs occurrence could be harmful to

ecosystems and public health.

The aim of this project was to investigate the

phytoplankton composition of these Islands and

hence document a checklist of encountered

species.

Aims

Methods

Phytoplankton sampling surveys were carried out on a

fisherman boat at 12 stations on the 19th May 2012.

Locations: The Islands of Songsong, Telur, and Bidan.

Sampling Technique: Plankton tow (25 micron)

Sampling Site

1 2

3

5

7

12 11 10

8 9

6

4

Station

PulauSongsong

TukunTerendak

PulauTelor

Pulau Bidan

Merbok

Yan

Kedah

19 genus and 31 species were recorded during

the study.

The species were mainly from two major

divisions namely Bacillariophyta (diatoms)

and Pyrrophyta (dinoflagellates).

Common genus: Bacteriastrum, Ceratium,

Chaetocerous and Pseudo-nitzchia

Results

Total number of species from each station

0

5

10

15

20

25

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Nu

mb

er

of

Sp

eci

es

Stations

Common species

Chaetoceros sp.

Chaetoceros affinis

Common species

Coscinodiscus sp.

Bacteriastrum delicatulum

Thalassiothrix sp.

Rhizololenia sp.

Common species

Triceratium reticulum

Cerataulina pelagica

Common species

Chaetoceros diversus

Common species

Ceratium trichoceros

Ceratium furca

(Ehrenberg) Clapare de et Lachmann, 1859

Key features Ceratium furca has a fairly wide girdle, a very prominent fairly straight apical horn, it also has two unequally sized (the left horn is longer than the right) posterior horns with a thin bar which connects the two. It is yellow with a brown tint when unstained (Tomas et al. 1997). Toxicity Is a red tide species that can cause death via nutrient capture and anoxia. It is also been reported to produce

paralytic toxins (Vargas-Montero & Freer 2004).

Occurrence of Ceratium furca

All station except for Station 6 and 9

1 2

3

5

7

12 11 10

8 9

6

4

PulauSongsong

TukunTerendak

PulauTelor

Pulau Bidan

Merbok

Yan

Kedah

Chlorophyll a (mg/L)

Decreasing

PulauSongsong

TukunTerendak

PulauTelor

Pulau Bidan

PulauSongsong

TukunTerendak

PulauTelor

Pulau Bidan

Ammonia (mg/L)

From this study there were comparatively fewer numbers of by comparison the data collected by Salleh et al, 2008* in the central islands of Straits of Malacca (Pulau Jarak and Pulau Perak).

*Salleh A, Ahmad S.W. and Bahnan I. S. (2008). Diversity of Phytoplankton Collected During the Scientific Expedition to Pulau Perak, Pulau Jarak and the Sembilan Group of Island. Malaysian Journal of Science 27 (3): 33-45.

Discussion

Species composition and dominance of phytoplankton are

mediated by various mechanisms including temperature,

light, removal by zooplankton and nutrient supply. Thus a

solid conclusion could not be made in this study as

sampling protocol were only conducted once.

Acknowledgements Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment

(NRE), Malaysia (Grant no.: 304/PBiology/650598/J122).

Marine Park Malaysia for funding support.

Members of Marine Science, Universiti Sains Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Mara, Perlis for their assistance during the sampling period.

THANK YOU