1 HABITAT CONDITION OF MUD CRAB (Scylla serrata) IN BERAU MANGROVE AREA, EAST KALIMANTAN Triyanto 1) , Nirmalasari Idha Wijaya 2) , Ivana Yuniarti 1) , Fajar Setiawan 1) , Fajar Sumi Lestari 1) and Tri Widiyanto 1) , ABSTRACT Mangrove area in Berau Regency, East Kalimantan is a very potential resource to enhance local people welfare. It expands from Tanjung Batu, Delta Berau in the north to Biduk-biduk area in the south. With 47.349 ha forested area or 59,03% of the total coastal area in this regency. Mud crab (i.e. Scylla serrata), one of the economically prominent species, utilizes this mangrove area to be its main habitat. The research had been conducted from April to July 2012. The aim of research was objected to determine of the condition of mud crab habitat. Several observed parameters were physical (e.g. salinity, substrate, temperature and TSS), chemical (e.g. DO, TN, TP, and N-NH 4 ), and biological parameters (e.g. mangrove species and chlorophyll-a). The result shows that the dominant mangrove species standing on the crab’s habitat are Avicennia, Rhizophora, Sonneratia and Nipa. The water quality that has correlation with mud crab base on PCA analysis were C & N-substrat, dust, clay, TSS, TP, and clorofil-a. There are similarities between sampling location at Pisang-pisang, Betumbuk dan Semanting base on euclidean distance with cluster analysis. It is concluded that water quality and mangrove condition was still appropriate for the mud crab as its habitat. Key words: Mud crab, Scylla serrata, Mangrove, Berau Introduction Mangrove areas in Berau District is a very potential resource to improve local people’ welfare especially who are living in coastal areas. The forest spreads from the northern area (i.e. Tanjung Batu, Berau Delta) to the southern part (Biduk-biduk). Moreover, it also stands on the small islands; for examples: Panjang, Rabu-rabu, Semama, Maratua island in northern area and Buaya-buaya island in the southern part. Overall, it extends for about 80,277 ha (Wiryawan, et al. 2005). 1) Research Center for Limnology-Indonesian Institute of Sciences, 2) University of Agricultural Sciences-STIPER East Kutai, email: triyanto@limnologi.lipi.go.id International Conference on Indonesian Inland Waters III, Palembang 8 November 2012 (Proceding International Terbit februari 2013)