Fish and coral communities along the seawall of Sutera Harbour Marina, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

Coastal development involves the introduction of artificial substrates into the natural marine environment, thereby altering and causing the loss of natural habitat. Nevertheless, such artificial structures are known to provide novel habitat for the recruitment and growth of epifauna. Seawalls serve...

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Main Authors: Gan Sze Hoon, Pang Shek Qin, Cheong Chah How, Mohd Firdaus Akmal Nooramli, Fikri Akmal Khodzori, Muhammad Ali Syed Hussein, Zarinah Waheed, Heinrich Jessen, Gilbert Ee Guan Hui, Kenneth Goi Kok Ming, Alex Ng Soon Heng, Rick Blackie, Francis Lee Choon Hui
Format: Article
Language:English
English
Published: Ingenta Connect 2024
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Online Access:https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41536/1/ABSTRACT.pdf
https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41536/2/FULL%20TEXT.pdf
https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41536/
https://doi.org/10.5343/bms.2023.0118
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spelling my.ums.eprints.415362024-10-22T06:52:59Z https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41536/ Fish and coral communities along the seawall of Sutera Harbour Marina, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Gan Sze Hoon Pang Shek Qin Cheong Chah How Mohd Firdaus Akmal Nooramli Fikri Akmal Khodzori Muhammad Ali Syed Hussein Zarinah Waheed Heinrich Jessen Gilbert Ee Guan Hui Kenneth Goi Kok Ming Alex Ng Soon Heng Rick Blackie Francis Lee Choon Hui SH1-691 Aquaculture. Fisheries. Angling TK7800-8360 Electronics Coastal development involves the introduction of artificial substrates into the natural marine environment, thereby altering and causing the loss of natural habitat. Nevertheless, such artificial structures are known to provide novel habitat for the recruitment and growth of epifauna. Seawalls serve as hard substrata on which assemblages of benthic communities have been observed to settle and proliferate. This study investigated the diversity and abundance of marine fauna, with a primary focus on fish and hard coral communities along the seawall of Sutera Harbour Marina, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, in 2015 and 2022. Additionally, benthic cover was assessed in 2022. The assessment was conducted along 12 belt transects (each measuring 10 m × 3 m) placed on the seawall approximately 2–3 m from the bottom. Data on the diversity and abundance of fish and hard coral colonies were collected. Results showed that 105 fish species from 32 families and 48 genera of hard corals from 17 families inhabited the marina. There was an increase in the abundance and colony size of hard corals over time. Additional benthic data collected in 2022 indicated that the seawalls had a fair coral cover of 31.7%. Although the taxa richness for fish and hard corals was lower compared to surrounding natural reef habitats, this study presented that artificial structures such as seawalls in the marina can support the natural colonization of marine fauna. This study underscores the importance of artificial structures as possible refuges for marine organisms, particularly in urbanized coastal areas. Ingenta Connect 2024 Article NonPeerReviewed text en https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41536/1/ABSTRACT.pdf text en https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41536/2/FULL%20TEXT.pdf Gan Sze Hoon and Pang Shek Qin and Cheong Chah How and Mohd Firdaus Akmal Nooramli and Fikri Akmal Khodzori and Muhammad Ali Syed Hussein and Zarinah Waheed and Heinrich Jessen and Gilbert Ee Guan Hui and Kenneth Goi Kok Ming and Alex Ng Soon Heng and Rick Blackie and Francis Lee Choon Hui (2024) Fish and coral communities along the seawall of Sutera Harbour Marina, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Bulletin of Marine Science, 100. pp. 1-20. https://doi.org/10.5343/bms.2023.0118
institution Universiti Malaysia Sabah
building UMS Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Malaysia Sabah
content_source UMS Institutional Repository
url_provider http://eprints.ums.edu.my/
language English
English
topic SH1-691 Aquaculture. Fisheries. Angling
TK7800-8360 Electronics
spellingShingle SH1-691 Aquaculture. Fisheries. Angling
TK7800-8360 Electronics
Gan Sze Hoon
Pang Shek Qin
Cheong Chah How
Mohd Firdaus Akmal Nooramli
Fikri Akmal Khodzori
Muhammad Ali Syed Hussein
Zarinah Waheed
Heinrich Jessen
Gilbert Ee Guan Hui
Kenneth Goi Kok Ming
Alex Ng Soon Heng
Rick Blackie
Francis Lee Choon Hui
Fish and coral communities along the seawall of Sutera Harbour Marina, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
description Coastal development involves the introduction of artificial substrates into the natural marine environment, thereby altering and causing the loss of natural habitat. Nevertheless, such artificial structures are known to provide novel habitat for the recruitment and growth of epifauna. Seawalls serve as hard substrata on which assemblages of benthic communities have been observed to settle and proliferate. This study investigated the diversity and abundance of marine fauna, with a primary focus on fish and hard coral communities along the seawall of Sutera Harbour Marina, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, in 2015 and 2022. Additionally, benthic cover was assessed in 2022. The assessment was conducted along 12 belt transects (each measuring 10 m × 3 m) placed on the seawall approximately 2–3 m from the bottom. Data on the diversity and abundance of fish and hard coral colonies were collected. Results showed that 105 fish species from 32 families and 48 genera of hard corals from 17 families inhabited the marina. There was an increase in the abundance and colony size of hard corals over time. Additional benthic data collected in 2022 indicated that the seawalls had a fair coral cover of 31.7%. Although the taxa richness for fish and hard corals was lower compared to surrounding natural reef habitats, this study presented that artificial structures such as seawalls in the marina can support the natural colonization of marine fauna. This study underscores the importance of artificial structures as possible refuges for marine organisms, particularly in urbanized coastal areas.
format Article
author Gan Sze Hoon
Pang Shek Qin
Cheong Chah How
Mohd Firdaus Akmal Nooramli
Fikri Akmal Khodzori
Muhammad Ali Syed Hussein
Zarinah Waheed
Heinrich Jessen
Gilbert Ee Guan Hui
Kenneth Goi Kok Ming
Alex Ng Soon Heng
Rick Blackie
Francis Lee Choon Hui
author_facet Gan Sze Hoon
Pang Shek Qin
Cheong Chah How
Mohd Firdaus Akmal Nooramli
Fikri Akmal Khodzori
Muhammad Ali Syed Hussein
Zarinah Waheed
Heinrich Jessen
Gilbert Ee Guan Hui
Kenneth Goi Kok Ming
Alex Ng Soon Heng
Rick Blackie
Francis Lee Choon Hui
author_sort Gan Sze Hoon
title Fish and coral communities along the seawall of Sutera Harbour Marina, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
title_short Fish and coral communities along the seawall of Sutera Harbour Marina, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
title_full Fish and coral communities along the seawall of Sutera Harbour Marina, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
title_fullStr Fish and coral communities along the seawall of Sutera Harbour Marina, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Fish and coral communities along the seawall of Sutera Harbour Marina, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
title_sort fish and coral communities along the seawall of sutera harbour marina, kota kinabalu, sabah, malaysia
publisher Ingenta Connect
publishDate 2024
url https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41536/1/ABSTRACT.pdf
https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41536/2/FULL%20TEXT.pdf
https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41536/
https://doi.org/10.5343/bms.2023.0118
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score 13.211869