Diversity of Freshwater Fish in Fragmented Forest of Wilmar Oil Palm Plantation, Miri, Sarawak

The study was conducted in the river system located at Wilmar oil palm plantation in Miri, Sarawak. The objective of the study is to determine the fish species diversity and composition in the streams and rivers in the oil palm plantations. Fish were sampled using a variety of fishing methods, including, scoop nets, cast net, and gill nets of different mesh sizes (1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.75 and 4.0 cm) from 2 to 7 of February 2014. A total of 326 individual fish including 32 species of native fishes and one species of non-native fish from 19 genera, seven families and five orders were collected from seven locations. The cyprinid fish represented 62.20% of the total fish caught and was found in all the rivers surveyed. About six endemic species in Borneo such as Barbonymus collingwoodii, Barbodes banksi, Barbodes sealei, Hampala bimaculata Nematabramis borneensis and Nematabramis everetti were identified. However, only one species from families Bagridae, Balitoridae, Clariidae, and Hemiramphidae was sampled from the study sites. The higher fish species composition found in streams and rivers of the oil palm plantation landscapes could be attributed to the conservation of some areas of the plantation as high conservation value forest (HCVF) status, which have provided suitable habitat for fish species within the plantation aquatic environments

Distribution of intertidal flat macrobenthos in Buntal Bay, Sarawak, Borneo

The distribution of macrobenthos in the intertidal area of Buntal Bay, Sarawak was studied based on systematic sampling conducted in 2014. This study aimed to determine the intertidal macrobenthic horizontal distribution and their relationship with environmental parameters. An analysis of the intertidal flat marobenthos community suggested that polychaetes dominated the community in terms of the number of individuals and species followed by crustaceans and molluscs. Polychaetes of families Nephtyidae, Spionidae, Capitellidae, and Magelonidae contributed to the high densities of macrobenthos. Multivariate analysis performed by the Biotic and Environmental linking analysis indicated that communities in Transect 1 and Transect 2 were best correlated with food availability (sediment chlorophyll a), and heterogeneity of sediment type (percentage of fine sand and very fine sand). Heterogeneity of sediment characteristic and food availability were identified as potentially playing a key role in the shaping of the intertidal macrobenthic distribution in Buntal Bay