Metabarcoding of Fish Larvae in the Merbok River Reveals Species Diversity and Distribution Along its Mangrove Environment.

ABSTRACT: The Merbok River (north-west of Peninsular Malaysia) is a mangrove estuary that provides habitat for over 100 species of fish, which are economically and ecologically important. Threats such as habitat loss and overfishing are becoming a great concern for fisheries conservation and management. The identification of larval fish in this estuarine system is important to complement information on the adults. This is because the data could inform the spawning behaviour, reproductive biology, selection of nursery grounds and migration route of fish. Such information is invaluable for fisheries and aquatic environmental monitoring, and thus for their conservation and management. However, identifying fish larvae is a challenging task based only on morphology and even traditional DNA barcoding. To

SUBMITTER: Alshari NFMAH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9169113 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature