ENIVRONMENT ASIA

Volume 14, No. 01, Month JANUARY, Year 2021, Pages 69 - 79

Effect of water quality on the abundance of firefly populations at cherating river, pahang, malaysia

Ramdan Faudzi, Azlan Abas, Nurul Wahida Othman, and Sytty Mazian Mazlan

Abstract Download PDF

The decreasing of fi refl y population is due to the alteration of habitats such as pollution, physical changes, and human activities that are voraciously destroying the environment. This study aims to determine the abundance of the fi refl y population, to measure the river water quality level and to analyse the relationship between the fi refl y population and the river water quality. Six sampling stations were set up along Cherating River. The photo visual method was used for the fi refl y sampling and was conducted on three diff erent nights. The water sampling was conducted at two diff erent times of day and night. A total of 243 individual fi refl ies were counted from each sampling station, with Pteroptyx bearni was the dominant species in the area. Based on Water Quality Index (WQI) and Interim National Water Quality Standards (INWQS), the water quality of Cherating River was in Class III (medium contaminated). The Pearson correlation result showed that there was a strong positive correlation between dissolved oxygen (DO) and the fi refl y population, but strongly negatively correlated with temperature, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and ammonia nitrogen. The parameters of pH, total suspended solid (TSS) and Escherichia coli did not show any correlation with fi refl y populations. Therefore, only temperature, DO, BOD, COD and ammonia nitrogen seem to infl uence the population abundance of fi refl ies in Cherating River. To agitate the abundance of fi refl y populations, organic pollutants should be removed from the water body to prevent DO from decreasing while increasing BOD, COD, and Ammonia-nitrogen.

Keywords

Firefl ies; Aquatic ecosystem; Biomonitoring; Ecosystem services; Tropical river ecosystem; Environmental management

---