Faunal diversity and distribution of benthic organisms in Kelantan Delta Mangrove ecosystem

Abstract

The present study is to perform a survey on the composition and distribution of macrobenthos at Tumpat mangrove environment of Kelantan Delta. The faunal samples were collected using a benthic dredge, and the sediment samples by Ekman grab. Altogether, 18 species were encountered belonging to different groups such as annelids, gastropods, bivalves, crabs and shrimps. The Bray-Curtis similarity (hierarchical clustering) based on faunal abundance (root-transformed) data revealed six species' associations/groupings at Tumpat covering Bay, mangrove and estuarine waterways. Among others, gastropoda is the dominant group of benthic organisms. On the whole, species diversity is rich in the mangrove area ( e.g. Station 04) (H'= 1.3521) followed by bay ( e.g. Station AS) (H'= 1.11999) and the estuary ( e.g. Station D8) (H'= 1.012663 ) in the order. The sediment nature is mostly composed of sand at seaward locations, while clay characterized mangrove/Bay environment. The species-environment relationship was examined through Canoconial Correspondence Analysis (CCA), and it has been observed that the bivalve population was abundant exclusively in the Bay side locations (preferring sandy bottom), whereas gastropods including polycaeta/crabs inhabited mangrove/estuarine regions preferred clayey-silt sediment.