Abstract
The island of Penang lying off the northwestern coast of Peninsular Malaysia, is one of the historical places for ichthyological exploration in Southeast Asia and the type locality of three freshwater species and one euryhaline species. Freshwater ecosystems on the island are currently threatened by multiple causes. To facilitate further environmental-oriented monitoring actions, we reexamined the fish diversity by surveying several freshwater localities across the island. All collected specimens were vouchered, morphologically identified and then genetically characterized using the “Barcode” fragment of the cytochrome oxidase I gene. We collected a total of 52 fish species, including 37 (21 native + 16 introduced) strictly-adapted freshwater species. Five native and 10 introduced species represent new records for the island. Genetic analyses revealed low cryptic diversity within morphologically identified species. Combining our results with those of previous surveys, a total of 63 fish species are now known from Penang freshwaters, however, five native species were not collected in the last 60 years and their conservation status is certainly at risk on the island. Overall, the presence of many introduced species along with the general degradation of freshwater habitats of Penang Island threaten its native fish diversity.
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Data availability
Data are publicly available in the Barcode of Life Datasystem (BOLD) (https://boldsystems.org/) under the project “Inventorying the biodiversity of inland waters of the Penang Hill (Project code: BIOPH)”. Representative sequences were deposited in GenBank (Accession Numbers MW590986-MW591187).
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Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge Lim Teow Yeong for his assistance in collecting the samples. Fieldwork was conducted under permissions issued by the Forestry Department Peninsular Malaysia (Penang State Forestry Department) [Reference no: JPNPP/100-1/7/1 Jld. 2(6)]. Our thanks also go to Penang Hill Corporation and the Habitat Penang Hill for logistics support.
Funding
This work was funded by Universiti Malaysia Terengganu and Ministry of Water, Land and Natural Resources of Malaysia (UMT/IMB/2019/53308—An inventory of aquatic macrofauna and fishes in the proposed Penang Hill UNESCO Biosphere Reserve).
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Conceptualization: JAFJ, SL, AA, AT, CLL, SAMN; Sampling: JAFJ, SL, NFMAHA, SZBG; Laboratory analyses: JAFJ, NFMAHA, SZBG; Data management and analyses; JAFJ, SL, NFMAHA, SZBG; Draft preparation: JAFJ, SL, SAMN; Review and editing: JAFJ, SL, NFMAHA, SZBG, AA, AT, CLL, SAMN; Funding acquisition: SAMN. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
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Jamaluddin, J.A.F., Lavoué, S., Alshari, N.F.M.A.H. et al. Reassessing fish diversity of Penang Island’s freshwaters (northwest Peninsular Malaysia) through a molecular approach raises questions on its conservation status. Biodivers Conserv 31, 1551–1576 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-022-02409-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-022-02409-6