Species-area relationship and potential role as a biomonitor of mangrove communities of Malayan mudskippers

Abstract

The rapid and extensive destruction of mangrove forests and adjacent peritidal ecosystems in the Indo-Pacific region requires the development of efficient management and conservation actions. Mudskippers (Gobiidae: Oxudercinae) are amphibious gobies that are strictly linked to mangrove forests and tropical mudflats. I recorded the presence and habitat distribution of mudskipper species in four mangrove ecosystems along the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Different localities host different mudskipper communities, while in each locality species are differentially distributed along the intertidal gradient. At the ecosystem level, I found a significant exponential correlation between sampled area and the species richness of these communities, consistent with the SAR hypothesis. At the habitat level, the presence of a vertical zonation along the intertidal gradient suggests the possibility of using the species living exclusively in higher or lower levels as bioindicators for habitat anthropogenic impact, respectively from the land and from the sea.

Habitat segregation and cryptic adaptation of species ofPeriophthalmus(Gobioidei: Gobiidae)

“…The composition of the studied communities is consistent with the recorded geographic distribution of the species of Periophthalmus (Murdy, 1989;. In particular, P. malaccensis was first recorded in Sulawesi by Polgar et al (2014), having otherwise been recorded only from: Singapore (Eggert, 1935;Koumans, 1953) where it is now probably extinct ; Kuala Langat, on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula (Koumans, 1953), where it was not found by more recent field surveys in this area (Polgar, 2009;Polgar & Crosa, 2009;Polgar & Bartolino, 2010); the Philippines and the Moluccas (Murdy, 1989); and northern Borneo (Polgar, 2016).…”

“…malaccensis was first recorded in Sulawesi by Polgar et al . (), having otherwise been recorded only from: Singapore (Eggert, ; Koumans, ) where it is now probably extinct (Larson et al ., ); Kuala Langat, on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula (Koumans, ), where it was not found by more recent field surveys in this area (Polgar, ; Polgar & Crosa, ; Polgar & Bartolino, ); the Philippines and the Moluccas (Murdy, ); and northern Borneo (Polgar, ).…”

“…argentilineatus and P . kalolo ; Takita et al ., ; Polgar, ), semi‐quantitative ( P . gracilis ; Polgar & Crosa, ) and quantitative ( P .…”

Mangrove rehabilitation in high erosion areas: Assessment using bioindicators

“…Despite significant evidence indicating the inherent value of mangrove ecosystems, over one third of worldwide mangrove cover has been lost, and clearing continues at a rate of 1e2% per annum globally (Ellison, 2000;Alongi, 2002;Barbier, 2006;Lewis and Gilmore, 2007;Polgar, 2009). In Vietnam specifically, large historical mangrove loss occurred due to herbicide use during the Vietnam War (Hong, 1993;Alongi, 2002) and in Kien Giang province, mangroves have been reduced to a thin belt along the coastline, 60% of which is currently eroding (Duke, 2012).…”

“…Although mudskippers have not been used specifically to assess mangrove rehabilitation, they have been suggested as potential bioindicators for the health of mangrove ecosystems (Polgar, 2009). Wickramasinghe et al (2009) showed that mudskippers respond readily to changes in environmental conditions and, thus, may represent a suitable indicator of habitat status under different pollutant loadings.…”