Boundaries

This ecoregion extends along the central coast of Sumatra along the Strait of Malacca from the Rokan basin in the west to the Batanghari basin in the east. It also includes islands such as Rupat, Bengkalis, Pedang, Rangsang, Tebingtinggi, Mendol, and Kundar in the Strait of Malacca, as well as the Riau Archipelago and Lingga islands south of Singapore.

Terrestrial habitats

Sumatran montane rain forests [IM0159], Sumatran lowland rain forests [OM0158], Sumatran freshwater swamp forests [OM0157], Sumatran peat swamp forests [OM0160], Sunda shelf mangroves [IM1405], Tenasserim-South Thailand semi-evergreen rain forests [IM0163], and Peninsular Malaysian rain forests [IM0146] (WWF 2001)

Description of endemic fishes

This ecoregion is estimated to have around 20 endemic species (M. Kottelat pers. comm. 2006).

Justification for delineation

For Southeast Asia, delineations were determined using a bottom-up approach that employed both published and unpublished field data and expert assessment (Abell et al. 2008; Kottelat et al. 1993). This ecoregion shares many species with the Kapuas ecoregion [741] in Borneo, and not shared with the Northern Central Sumatra-Western Malaysia [735] and Southern Sumatra and Western Java [739] ecoregions (M. Kottelat pers. comm. 2006).