Sains Malaysiana 50(6)(2021): 1577-1588

http://doi.org/10.17576/jsm-2021-5006-06

 

Zooplankton Community Structure in Relation to the Water Quality and Seston Fatty Acid Content in the Coastal Waters of Penang, Malaysia

(Struktur Komuniti Zooplankton Berkaitan dengan Kualiti Air dan Kandungan Asid Lemak Seston di Perairan Pantai Penang, Malaysia)

 

WAN MAZNAH, W. O.1,2,3*, NUR ‘AIN KASSIM1 & ZUBIR DIN1

 

1School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia

 

2Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies (CEMACS), Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia

 

3River Engineering and Urban Drainage Centre (REDAC), Universiti Sains Malaysia, Seri Empangan, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia

 

Received: 25 February 2020/Accepted: 8 October 2020

 

ABSTRACT

Zooplankton community structure and seston fatty acid content in relation with water quality characteristics at selected sampling stations of Penang coastal waters were determined. Water and zooplankton samples were collected on five sampling occasions from July 2009 until April 2011. Zooplankton samples were collected by horizontal towing with plankton net (WP-2) and a fraction of the samples was used to get seston population for fatty acid analysis. Phylum Arthropoda dominated the sampling area with 78.80% of relative abundance, where Copepoda was the most abundant. Other phyla such as Chordata (9.10%), Cycliophora (6.12%), Actinopoda (2.08%), Rotifera (2.57%), Annelida (0.63%), Cnidaria (0.51%), and Chaetognatha (0.19%) were accounted in small abundance. Kuala Juru Station, which was highly impacted by human activities had the highest relative abundance and Jerejak Station (control station and considered to have low impact by anthropogenic activities) had the lowest relative abundance. Zooplankton diversity was quite low at all stations, might be due to large abundance of dominant taxa. The dominant fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) detected on seston consisted of SAFA (C16:0, C14:0, and C18:0), MUFA (C16:0, C14:0, and C18:0), PUFA (C18:2n6c and C20:5n3) and HUFA (C22:6n3 or DHA). Zooplankton community was influenced by food availability (phytoplankton, as measured by chlorophyll a and fatty acid composition in seston) and water quality. 

 

Keywords: Arthropoda; fatty acid; Malaysia; Rotifera; zooplankton diversity

 

ABSTRAK

Struktur komuniti Zooplankton dan kandungan asid lemak seston berkaitan dengan ciri-ciri kualiti air di stesen pensampelan terpilih di perairan pantai Pulau Pinang telah ditentukan. Sampel air dan zooplankton dikumpulkan pada lima stesen persampelan dari Julai 2009 hingga April 2011. Sampel zooplankton dikumpulkan dengan cara menunda secara mendatar menggunakan jaring plankton (WP-2) dan sebahagian dari sampel digunakan untuk analisis asid lemak populasi seston. Phylum Arthropoda mendominasi kawasan persampelan dengan 78.80% kelimpahan relatif dengan Copepoda adalah yang paling banyak. Phyla lain seperti Chordata (9.10%), Cycliophora (6.12%), Actinopoda (2.08%), Rotifera (2.57%), Annelida (0.63%), Cnidaria (0.51%) dan Chaetognatha (0.19%) terdapat dalam kelimpahan yang kecil. Stesen Kuala Juru, yang sangat dipengaruhi oleh aktiviti manusia mempunyai kelimpahan relatif tertinggi dan Stesen Jerejak (stesen kawalan dan dianggap mempunyai kesan yang rendah oleh aktiviti antropogenik) mempunyai kelimpahan relatif terendah. Kepelbagaian zooplankton agak rendah di semua stesen, mungkin disebabkan oleh kepelbagaian taksonomi yang dominan. Asid lemak metil ester (FAMEs) dominan yang dikesan pada plankton terdiri daripada SAFA (C16: 0, C14: 0 dan C18: 0), MUFA (C16: 0, C14: 0 dan C18: 0), PUFA (C18: 2n6c dan C20: 5n3) dan HUFA (C22: 6n3 atau DHA). Komuniti zooplankton dipengaruhi oleh ketersediaan makanan (fitoplankton, seperti yang diukur oleh klorofila dan komposisi asid lemak seston) dan kualiti air.

 

Kata kunci: Arthropoda; asid lemak; kepelbagaian zooplankton; Malaysia; Rotifera

 

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*Corresponding author; email: wmaznah@usm.my

 

 

   

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