Coral Gardening: Issues and Challenges

Coral gardening is the process of restoring cover of a damaged reef by affixing live coral fragments. This method of reef rehabilitation has been gaining popularity in the Philippines, and while it has its applications, it should be the last option for bringing a reef back to a healthy state. Proper management of reef resources through marine protected areas, removal of stressors, and easing of fishing pressure provides a broader and more holistic approach while allowing the reef to recover by itself. If coral gardening is the only viable option available for rehabilitating a certain reef, careful consideration must be put into site selection, coral species to be utilized, and the management of transplantation sites. All national and local government permits required for operating a coral gardening initiative should also be obtained, and a monitoring plan formulated to assess its effectivity in the long run

Current management, conservation, and research imperatives for Philippine coral reefs

© 2020, Department of Science and Technology. All rights reserved. The recent nationwide assessment of 206 fringing reefs in the Philippines revealed the loss of one-third of their hard-coral cover such that none qualified to be in excellent status. These findings, taken in the light of recently published studies showing that marine protected areas (MPAs) by themselves are not sufficient to protect corals and coral reefs against climate change impacts, indicate the need for urgent management and conservation action. We must implement statistically robust, methodologically-sound monitoring of reefs coupled with local and national government action to manage and protect reefs from the direct impacts of human activities. Laws and regulations must also be reviewed and updated. We must also identify and map the well-developed reefs in the country. These reefs tend to have higher coral cover and diversity and have endured the environmental challenges over thousands of years. With our help, they may serve as Noah’s ark reefs of the future

Statistics in environmental research

Dr. Wilfredo Licuanan of the Biology Department talks on Statistics in Environmental Research

New records of stony corals from the Philippines previously known from peripheral areas of the Indo-Pacific

New Philippine records of coral species are described here namely Cantharellus noumeae Hoeksema & Best, 1984; Stylophora kuehlmanni Scheer & Pillai, 1983; and Acropora halmaherae Wallace & Wolstenholme, 1998. Stylophora danae Milne Edwards & Haime, is also added again to the Philippine inventory to update previous lists. These species were previously reported only from areas peripheral to the Indo-West Pacific (IWP). These findings further emphasize the high diversity of coral fauna in the IWP, and in the case of Stylophora, may even suggest a shift of the genus\u27 center of diversity from the Red Sea to the IWP. © National University of Singapore

Sensitivities of coral reefs in the Verde Island passage to climate change

The Verde Island Passage (VIP) is located at the center of marine shorefish biodiversity in the Philippines. It is under tremendous amount of stress from natural and anthropogenic impacts. A vulnerability assessment of the VIP’s coral reef areas to climate change, particularly elevated sea-surface temperatures (SST), increased storminess and sea-level rise (SLR) is presented. Potential impacts on live hard coral cover due to increasing SST ranged from 3% to 22% loss. These projections were based on the high percentage covers of thermally sensitive coral families such as acroporids and pocilloporids. Potential impacts on diversity attributed to high SST ranged from 0.8% to 1.6% based on species-area curves and 10% to 49% based on sensitivities of coral genera from available literature. Estimated live hard coral cover and diversity loss due to the impact of storms ranged from 12.5% to 37.5% and 7% to 22%, respectively. Sea-level rise had the lowest impact on reef cover and diversity, resulting to an estimated loss of 4% to 7% in coral cover and 0.60% to 0.80% in coral diversity. Impact on reef fishes was measured based on their dependence and association with corals. Percentage loss of reef fish species richness and abundance ranged from 9% to 16% and 12% to 54%. These projected impacts on the health and biodiversity of the coral reefs of the VIP are conservative but still significant. The towns and communities surrounding the passage should not be complacent and should increase their efforts to protect and manage their coral reef areas

New records of scleractinian coral in the Philippines: Euphyllia paraglabrescens

Euphyllia paraglabrescens Veron, 1990, is one of the eight Euphyllia species and one of the 14 members of the Family Euphyllidae. Veron (2000) reports Tanegashima, Japan as the exclusive biogeographic range of the species and his latest inventory of Philippine corals (Veron and Fenner 2000) did not list its occurrence here. Moreover, it is uncommon in the inshore reefs of Talim Bay, Lian, Batangas, and hence the species is hereby described

A proposed framework for a national coral reef assessment program

The Philippines has limited up-to-date information on the current condition of its coral reefs and how this has changed over the last few decades. This comes at a time when threats to corals and coral reefs in general, and our economic and social dependence on them are at their greatest. This document outlines a framework by which a national coral reef assessment can be designed and this hopefully serves as a basis for stimulating urgently needed discussions on precisely how such an assessment could be undertaken. We propose that we should aim for an outcome of the national assessment that goes beyond generating updated information and that moves us to improving the conservation and management of Philippine coral reefs. We further suggest that the objectives of the assessment must first be precisely defined and agreed upon since the sampling design and corresponding costs of the assessment will depend greatly on these. We propose that the assessment should not be limited to estimating the amount of living coral and reef fish left in our reefs, but should also include an assessment of the health of the associated seagrass and even mangrove habitats that operate together with coral reefs in providing the coastal ecosystem services our people derive benefit from. The metrics to quantify the health of the coral reef communities and associated coastal habitats should be carefully selected as well as the assessment units, the sampling strata, and the methodologies involved in such an effort

Inventory of locally traded stony corals (Phylum Cnidaria, Order Scleractinia) in the Cartimar Shopping Center, Pasay City

The Philippines is known for its high marine BIODIVERSITY and for the high risk to that diversity. Of the human activities implicated in the degradation of coral reefs, collection of organisms for the aquarium trade is probably the most controversial. As a first step in determining the local impact of this trade and how, if possible, it can be managed, this paper presents an inventory of the corals being sold in Cartimar Shopping Center, the center of the pet trade in Metro Manila. A total of 29 species in nine families were found, with pocilloporids and Acropora being the best-selling. Euphyliids and gonioporids were also common in the shops, probably because these corals survive well in tanks. Ten of the species identified were categorized as near threatened, and another six were categorized as vulnerable in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Therefore, corals in both categories should not be in the trade. Suggestions on how the aquarium trade could be made self-regulating are presented in this work