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Fulltext Data on phytoplankton abundance in Malacca Straits, west coast of Peninsular Malaysia in August 2019

Sohaimi ES, Md Amin R, Sahibu A, Mohd Akhir MF

Data Brief, 2021 Apr;35:106893.
PMID: 33718548 DOI: 10.1016/j.dib.2021.106893

In this article, the abundance of phytoplankton community structure in Malacca Straits (MS); from Port Klang to Langkawi Island are reported. The datasets include data from 25 selected sampling sites that were acquired in August 2019 on board the RV Discovery's cruise expedition. These data contain details on the density of phytoplankton (cell L-1), total number of species, volume seawater filtered (in L) and the concentration factors (ml) in MS. Data presented in this article consists of 163 species, including unidentified species from 6 phyla of phytoplankton, along with the percentage of a major community group in MS.
Fulltext Spatiotemporal trends in the southwest monsoon wind-driven upwelling in the southwestern part of the South China Sea

Kok PH, Mohd Akhir MF, Tangang F, Husain ML

PLoS One, 2017;12(2):e0171979.
PMID: 28187215 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0171979

This study analyzes two wind-induced upwelling mechanisms, namely, Ekman transport and Ekman pumping that occur during the southwest monsoon. The results suggest that the coastline of the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia (ECPM) is affected by upwelling with spatiotemporal variations. Characterization of upwelling by using wind-induced upwelling indexes (UIW) indicate the existence of favorable upwelling conditions from May to September. Upwelling intensity increased in May and peaked in August before declining in September, decreasing intensity from the southern tip towards the northern tip along the coastline of the ECPM. The existence of upwelling along the ECPM has resulted in an important difference between the SSTs of the inshore and the oceanic regions. Nonetheless, the use of the SST gradient between the inshore and the oceanic SSTs to characterize upwelling (UISST) was found to be unsuitable because the SST along the ECPM was affected by water advection from the Java Sea and incessant changes in the SST. In order to indicate the major contributor of wind-induced upwelling along the ECPM in terms of the spatiotemporal scale, a comparison between Ekman transport and Ekman pumping was drawn by integrating Ekman pumping with respect to the distance where the positive wind stress curl existed. The estimation of Ekman transport and Ekman pumping indicated that Ekman pumping played a major role in contributing towards upwelling in any particular month during the southwest monsoon along the entire coastline of the ECPM as compared to Ekman transport, which contributed towards more than half of the total upwelling transport. By dividing the ECPM into three coastal sections, we observed that Ekman pumping was relatively predominant in the middle and northern coasts, whereas both Ekman transport and Ekman pumping were equally prevalent in the southern coast.
Fulltext Seasonal benthic species composition linked to coastal defense structures (CDS) in Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia

Ibrahim NF, Abd Hamid M, Mohd Akhir MF, Chuan Ong M, Wan Talaat WIA, Idris I

PeerJ, 2023;11:e16203.
PMID: 38025728 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.16203

BACKGROUND: The natural hydrodynamic process of Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, has changed since the extension of Sultan Mahmud Airport runway in 2008. Consequently, severe coastal erosion has occurred in the area, particularly during the northeast monsoon season (NEM). Numerous types of coastal defense structures (CDS) have been constructed to protect the coastline. Despite the loss of esthetic values, the effect of CDS construction on marine organisms in the area remains unknown. Hence, this study aims to assess the ecological aspects of macrobenthic compositions at the CDS area of Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, based on the differences between the southwest (SWM) and northeast (NEM) monsoon seasons.
METHODS: Macrobenthos were collected from the sediment in July (SWM) and December 2021 (NEM) using the Ponar grab at 12 substations from five sampling stations.
RESULTS: The density of macrobenthos was higher in SWM (48,190.82 ind./m2) than in NEM (24,504.83 ind./m2), with phylum Mollusca recording the highest species composition (60-99.3%). The macrobenthos species had a low to moderate level of diversity (H' = 1.4-3.1) with the species were almost evenly distributed (J' = 0.2-0.8). Windward substations exhibited coarser grain sizes (38.56%-86.84%), whereas landward substations exhibited very fine grain sizes (44.26%-86.70%). The SWM season recorded a higher organic matter content (1.6%-6.33%) than the NEM season (0.4%-3.1%). However, metal concentrations in the surface sediment were within the safe range and permissible limits for both seasons, inferring that the macrobenthos composition was unaffected.
DISCUSSION: This study demonstrated that the CDS associated with the monsoon system has controlled the hydrodynamics and nearshore sedimentary processes in the Kuala Nerus coastal zone, thereby affecting the macrobenthos population, in terms of richness and density. The ecological and energetic effects of the coastal structures in different seasons have resulted in a more significant result, with the SWM exhibiting a higher macrobenthos composition than the NEM.

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