About our site

Pulau Bidong and Pulau Yu, located off the east coast of Terengganu in Malaysia, represent two contrasting yet ecologically linked tropical reef systems shaped by both natural disturbance and human history. Pulau Bidong, a non-marine protected area (non-MPA), is historically known as “Little Saigon” for its role as a major Vietnamese refugee settlement during the late 1970s following the Vietnam War. Today, the island is sparsely inhabited, hosting a research station and basic tourism infrastructure within a recently gazetted state park. Its surrounding reefs, periodically impacted by strong monsoonal and storm-driven conditions, range from branching coral assemblages to boulder-dominated and submerged reef structures, creating a heterogeneous and dynamic benthic landscape.

In contrast, Pulau Yu is a designated marine protected area (MPA) characterised by sloping reef systems that develop along its rocky island profile. Largely undisturbed and free from permanent human settlement, the island supports relatively intact reef habitats with minimal direct anthropogenic pressure. Together, these sites provide a valuable natural setting to examine how protection status and environmental disturbance influence tropical reef biodiversity, particularly within cryptic and understudied communities.

What we plan to achieve

The eDNA Expeditions at Pulau Bidong and Pulau Yu are motivated by the need to complement an ongoing biodiversity assessment using Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS), recently deployed to capture the temporal colonisation of cryptic invertebrate communities over a two-year cycle. By integrating environmental DNA with subsequent metabarcoding analyses from ARMS retrievals, this work seeks to link water-column biodiversity signals with physically sampled benthic assemblages, providing a more complete and validated understanding of reef biodiversity.

A key aim is to determine how differences in reef topography — ranging from branching coral habitats and boulder fields to sloping rocky reefs — influence the presence, absence, and turnover of both visible and cryptic fauna across protected (MPA) and non-protected (non-MPA) systems. The comparison between Pulau Bidong and Pulau Yu offers a natural framework to evaluate how environmental disturbance and management status shape biodiversity patterns.

This effort also supports local management priorities by establishing biodiversity baselines, detecting fisheries-relevant species, and strengthening ecosystem monitoring approaches. Ultimately, the integration of eDNA and ARMS-based metabarcoding will contribute to more informed conservation planning and improved management of tropical reef ecosystems.