Journal of Survey in Fisheries Sciences 3(2)7-21 2017 An overview of the status, trends and challenges of freshwater fish research and conservation in Malaysia Ng C. Keat-Chuan1; Ooi P. Aun-Chuan1; Wong W.L.1; Khoo G.1* Received: April 2016 Accepted: September 2016 Abstract Freshwater fish biodiversity is a precious natural asset in terms of economic, cultural and scientific interest. And yet, the inland freshwater ecosystem in Malaysia is declining at a far greater rate than terrestrial ecosystems in the tropics. What happened, and what is being done to address the crisis? This paper extracts findings from the latest literature and explores overarching issues pertaining to freshwater ichthyology in Malaysia. Various schools of thought on biogeography and some basic data are first discussed to characterise Malaysia’s fish species distribution and diversity. Subsequently, fish research and conservation concerns are explicitly raised and discussed to reveal concerns affecting the research movement and freshwater habitat quality. It is hoped that this short review provides vital information to consolidate and drive effective national policies and programs for safeguarding the country’s freshwater fish biodiversity. Keywords: Conservation, Biogeography, Ecosystem, Fish, Freshwater, Malaysia 1- Faculty of Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Barat, 31900 Kampar, Perak, Malaysia. *Corresponding author's Email: [email protected] 8 Ng et al., An Overview of the Status, Trends and Challenges of Freshwater Fish Research and … Introduction and speciation processes. Secondly, Among vertebrate animals which totalled Wright et al. (2003) and Evans and approximately 54,711 recognized species, Gaston (2005) proposed a “productivity’’ by far, fishes form the largest category. hypothesis that expects species richness to Their numbers are expected to reach more increase when there is more energy than 32,500 valid marine and freshwater available. “Energy” in this context refers species within 515 families (Nelson, to the productive energy of solar that 2006). In general, roughly 11,952 species, translates to the volume of plants and or about 40% of fish species, occur biomass resources available to species to exclusively in or most often in freshwater feed on and inhabit. In general, the (Helfman et al., 2009). hypothesis proposes that energy Freshwater species is a typical term variability in the environment affects the used to describe fishes that are found in rates of metabolism, speciation and inland streams, rivers, lakes and regions molecular evolution in species. of weak brackish water. The term may Consequently, high energy areas promote also encompass diadromous species such faster speciation and evolution, thus more as sturgeons which often spend their species can occur. Thirdly, Ricklefs lifecycle between inland freshwater and (2004) proposed the “historical” the ocean. Among them, some can be hypothesis which explains that classified as anadromous (e.g. salmon, competition, predation and mutualism herrings), which means they usually relationship among species over migrate at incredible distances to the ecological time provides the drive for rivers and spawn in freshwater although diversity patterns. they spend most of their adulthood at sea. With regards to freshwater fishes, the In contrast, there are some 225 species “area” hypothesis seems to be plausible which are catadromous (e.g. Anguilla for explaining richness variability, namely eels) (Nelson, 2006) and they spawn in species richness tends to increase in the ocean but live in freshwater. There is proportion to the size of the basin area also a group of fish species that can live (Eadie et al., 1986; Rosenzweig 1995; freely between waters of various levels of Hugueny et al., 2010). Biogeographically, salinity and they are classified as larger freshwater areas appear to host euryhaline species. more genera and species, namely the Many hypotheses have been proposed Neotropical region (705 genera, 4,035 to rationalise species diversity at a wide species), Oriental (440 genera, 2,345 range of habitats on spatial scales and species), Afrotropical (390 genera, 2,938 they can be categorized into three major species), Palaearctic (380 genera, 1,844 hypotheses. Firstly, MacArthur’s (1969) species), Nearctic (298 genera, 1,411 “area” hypothesis suggests that species species) and Australian (94 genera, 261 diversity increases when there are more species) regions (Leveque et al., 2008) surface areas to accommodate habitats (Fig. 1). Journal of Survey in Fisheries Sciences 3(2) 2017 9 Figure 1: Major freshwater fish ecoregions encompassing 1,054 rivers as classified by the Fish- SPRICH database. Malaysia is located in the Oriental ecoregion. Source: Brosse et al. (2012). What is the taxonomic composition of with approximately 320 species each freshwater fishes in Malaysia? (Kottelat and Whitten, 1996). Species richness increases with Currently, the website http://ffish.asia/ decreasing latitude and it is commonly website (Kano et al., 2016) reports that known that there is a high level of there are 765 freshwater fish species endemism in the tropics. Malaysia is found in Southeast Asia. In Malaysia, located in the Oriental tropical ecoregion which encompasses peninsular and that encompasses the east, south and Sabah-Sarawak provinces, the online southeast Asia regions. When combined, database FishBase an estimated 3,500 freshwater fish species (http://www.fishbase.org/search.php) are present and high diversity occurs (Froese and Pauly, 2016) has records for mostly in the equatorial countries with 634 species in Malaysia alone which are Indochina, India, Indonesia and Malaysia grouped into 68 families. taking the lead. In comparison to Africa’s As indicated, the Cyprinidae family is 50 families and Latin America’s 55 the largest group (Fig. 2). The family families, tropical Asia harbours a encompasses 27.8% of fish species staggering 121 families within inland composition in Malaysia and with 33 waters with cyprinids as the dominant species, Rasbora is the largest genus in group. The Mekong River basin hosts the the family (Froese and Pauly, 2016). highest diversity with 1,200 species followed by the Yangtze River basin in China and the Kapuas River in Indonesia 10 Ng et al., An Overview of the Status, Trends and Challenges of Freshwater Fish Research and … Figure 2: Major freshwater ichthyofaunal families in Malaysia. Source: Graph produced with data obtained from Froese and Pauly (2016). Figure 3: Major river networks in Southeast Asia during the Pleistocene era, namely East Sunda River (A), West Sunda River (B) and North Sunda River (C). Source: Adapted from Rainboth (1991). Journal of Survey in Fisheries Sciences 3(2) 2017 11 Siluriformes is the most diverse order is a pronounced difference in the fish with 8 families of catfish and the distribution patterns between the north Hemibagrus is the largest genus (Zakaria- and south of Peninsular Malaysia (Fig. 4). Ismail, 1992). This numerical information Johnson observed that fish diversity is can be taken as a guide when conducting greater in the southern freshwater regions. field sampling in the freshwater habitats He argued that the south has more acidic in Malaysia. (pH<4) or brackish meso-habitats that Also, to infer how many species can be harbour specialized tolerant species such hosted and typically found in a particular as Betta persephone, Parosphromenus freshwater hydro-ecological unit, Ng and tweediei and striped barb (Desmopuntius Tan (1999) reported that 108 species in 26 johorensis). In the north, there are less families were recorded in the Endau brackish meso-habitats because they are basin, which is located in the state of typically dried out by the annual distinct Johore. Such a large diversity is not dry weather during the period between the unusual and this was observed by Johnson months of December to February (Wong as early as 1967. He speculated that there et al., 2009). Figure 4: Comparison of the east-west faunal line (left figure) postulated by Abell et al. (2008) with north-southern crescent faunal line (right figure) suggested by Johnson (1967). Another observation reported by Johnson cyprinids such as the white bream (1967) is the dispersal pattern of (Blicca bjoerkna), stone moroko cyprinids. In Malaysia, genera from the (Pseudorasbora parva) and common rudd Cyprinidae family are diverse and (Scardinius erythrophthalmus) typically productive in peat swamp and brackish populate hard waters (calcium content>60 waters such as Rasbora spp. and mg/L) and leave acidic waters (pH<4) to Osteochilus spp. However, in the Europe, other families (Johnson, 1967). 12 Ng et al., An Overview of the Status, Trends and Challenges of Freshwater Fish Research and … What is the ichthyofaunal biogeography the analysis process in order to produce a pattern in Malaysia? species presence or absence forecast in a Biogeography is a science that is particular target site. Such an approach concerned with species vicariance (Wiley, would increase the robustness of the study 1988). Nelson and Paltnick (1981) (Abell et al., 2008). describe it as "comparative biology of During the Pleistocene epoch which space, time and form". No matter how occurred between 2,588,000 to 11,700 small a present watershed is, first and years ago, the northern peninsular might foremost, the broadest outlook of "space, have a historical biogeographical link time and form" should be investigated to with the Thai-Burma-Mekong watershed understand ichthyofauna composition and systems while the watersheds in southern niches for making decisions when peninsular were linked to Sabah, Sarawak, conducting fish-based studies. Watersheds Kalimantan, Sumatra and Java (Fig. 3) that occurred in the past but no longer (Zakaria-Ismail, 1994; Voris, 2000; Bird exist at present day, typically known as et al., 2005; Abell et al., 2008; Hall, paleo-drainage basins (Abell et al., 2008), 2013). In a phylogeographic study where and how they link the freshwater habitats geographic distribution of species in at the alpha, beta and gamma diversity southeast Asia were correlated with levels in the past should also be population genetics, Lohman et al.