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Influences of environmental parameters and phytoplankton productivity on benthic invertebrates in a tropical oligotrophic lake, northern Malaysia

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Abstract

Studies that associate environmental parameters with aquatic organisms in man-made lakes remain limited by accessibility and interest particularly in many Asian countries. With missed opportunities to monitor environmental transitions at Lake Kenyir, our knowledge of lake transition is restricted to the non-mixing shallow waters only. Triplicate monthly benthic invertebrate samples were collected concurrently with various environmental parameters at three locations (zones A–C) of Kenyir Lake, Malaysia. Our results affirmed that the northeast part of Lake Kenyir is oligotrophic. Abundance of phytoplankton, total suspended solids, phosphate, nitrite and nitrate drive the abundance of various groups of benthic invertebrates. All of these extrinsic variables (except phosphate) negatively influenced the density of Trichoptera and positively influenced (P<0.05) the densities of Polychaeta, Oligochaeta, Bivalvia, Gastropod, Isopoda and Copepod in all zones. Phosphate negatively influenced the density of Trichoptera and positively influenced (P<0.05) the densities of Oligochaeta, Bivalvia and Copepod. Its influences on the Polychaeta, Gastropod and Isopoda densities were zone-specific. Overall, seasons equally influenced the relationships between extrinsic and response variables in all zones. The results of this study are useful to evaluate the lake’s environmental quality, in conservation and in similar projects involving environmental handling, monitoring and recovery.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute for the logistical support during the study.

Funding

Mustafizur M. Rahman received financial support from the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE), Malaysia, and the International Islamic University Malaysia through FRGS19-096-0705 and P-RIGS18-032-0032 projects, respectively, to conduct this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Oceanography and Maritime Studies, Faculty (Kulliyyah) of Science, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Kg. Cherok Paloh, 26160, Kuantan, Malaysia

    Mustafizur M. Rahman

  2. Department of Marine Science, Faculty of Science, IIUM, Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, 25200, Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia

    Mustafizur M. Rahman & Akbar John

  3. Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, IIUM, Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, 25200, Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia

    Ahmad Fathi

  4. Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Qld, 4111, Australia

    Stephen R. Balcombe

  5. Institute of Tropical Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030, Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia

    Bryan Nelson

  6. Association for Biodiversity Conservation and Research, Devine Colony, 756001 Balasore, Odisha, India

    Bryan Nelson

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  1. Mustafizur M. Rahman
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  2. Ahmad Fathi
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  3. Stephen R. Balcombe
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  4. Bryan Nelson
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Contributions

Funding acquisition, study design, materials preparation, data analysis, original draft writing and editing were done by Mustafizur M. Rahman; data were collected by Mustafizur M. Rahman and Ahmed Fathi. All authors reviewed, read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Mustafizur M. Rahman.

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Ethical approval and consent to participate

Permission to work in Lake Kenyir was obtained from the Department of Fisheries, Malaysia (Jabatan Perikanan Malaysia) (reference: Ptk. Tr. 2706 Jld. 1 (19)). All benthos were handled in accordance with Malaysian code for the care and use of animal for scientific purpose (MyCode). Animal ethics clearance for this study was obtained from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (reference: IIUM/518/14/4/IACUC) before commencing this research.

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Rahman, M.M., Fathi, A., Balcombe, S.R. et al. Influences of environmental parameters and phytoplankton productivity on benthic invertebrates in a tropical oligotrophic lake, northern Malaysia. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 43935–43947 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13671-6

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