A post-tsunami assessment of coastal living resources of Langkawi Archipelago, Peninsular Malaysia

Rapid and detailed post-tsunami surveys carried out in the Langkawi archipelago in January 2005 showed that the coral reefs dOld_ID not suffer any significant structural damage. Nevertheless, there were signs of recent sediment resuspension at the sites studied. The diversity and abundance of coral reef fishes and invertebrates were low. However, this was not attributed to the tsunami effect but rather to the present environmental conditions. The extent of damage at the villages of Kubang Badak and Kuala Teriang may indicate that intact coastal ecosystems such as mangroves have the potential to protect lives and property during natural disasters

Sponges of Tioman and their actinomycetes inhabitants

Actinomycetes were isolated from marine sponges of Tioman Island and taxonomically characterized up to genus level. Four hundred and seven putative actinomycetes were recovered from39 marine sponge samples collected from nine sites in Tioman Island using standard isolation protocols developed in the study. The actinomycetes population ranged from 2.72 x 102 to 0.6 x 102 colony forming unit (cfu)/g of dry sample. Isolates were then assigned into 11 color groups. Fifty three morphologically different representatives observed under the binocular light microscope were selected for chemotaxonomic, cultural, morphological and physiological characteristization. Chemotaxonomically, 21 (41%) isolates with L,L-diaminopimelic acid (DAP) and no diagnostic sugars pattern in the whole-cell wall hydrolysate were tentative streptomycetes (chemotype I), while 32 (59%) isolates with meso-DAP with observed three different sugars pattern were tentative non-streptomycetes (chemotype II/D, IV/A and III/B). Based on salt tolerance and carbon utilization test, forty five halo-groups and forty one carbo-groups were observed, indicating probable forty one to forty five different species or strains. The tentative genus diversity of rare actinomycetes in the marine sponges was Actinoplanes, Micromonospora, Sprilliplanes, Pseudonocardia, Nocardia, Rhodococcus, Saccharomonospora and Salinispora. Thirty eight crude extracts were tested against 13 bacterial strains and three fungal strains. Thirty four (64.2%) isolates exhibited antibacterial and antifungal activities, out of which eight (18.9%) isolates exhibited broad spectrum bioactivity