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

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

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

Leptoseris kalayaanensis (Scleractinia: Agariciidae), a new coral species from the Philippines

Leptoseris kalayaanensis new species, from the Kalayaan Island Group, the Philippines, is described. It is characterized by unique solid spines all over its encrusting surface. © National University of Singapore

Status and recent trends in coral reefs of the Philippines

Concern about the condition of Philippine coral reefs has prompted a recent reassessment of the status of the nation\u27s reefs, the results of which are reported here. This paper presents the largest updated dataset on Philippine coral cover and generic diversity. The dataset was obtained from equally-sized sampling stations on fore-reef slopes of fringing reefs in six biogeographic regions using identical methods. A total of 206 stations were surveyed from 2014 to 2017, and another 101 stations were monitored from 2015 to 2018. The weighted average hard coral cover (HCC) was 22.8% (±1.2 SE) and coral generic diversity averaged 14.5 (±0.5 SE). Both were highest in the fully-formed reefs of the Sulu Sea biogeographic region and lowest in the eastern Philippines. Comparisons of findings with those of previous assessments show the continued decline in coral cover over a larger time scale, with the loss of about a third of the reef corals over the last decade. However, no consistent changes were evident in the 101 monitoring stations from 2015 to 2018 despite the global coral bleaching event. An expanded monitoring program, not just one-off assessments, is recommended to improve reef management in the Philippines. © 201