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Cycle 9 (2020 Deadline)
Assessment and comparison of recovery of biodiversity and carbon sequestration in Philippine mangroves among natural, replanted and naturally-recolonized mangrove stands
PI: Severino Salmo III (sgsalmo@up.edu.ph), University of the Philippines Diliman - Institute of Biology
U.S. Partner: Richard MacKenzie, United States Department of Agriculture/United States Forest Service
Project Dates: July 2021 - March 2024
Project Overview
 | | Planted mangrove sampling site in Oriental Mindoro. Photo credit: Dr. Salmo. |
The capacity of mangroves to render ecosystem services depends on their spatial extent, ecosystem health, and forest development. Intact mangroves have high primary productivity that result in elevated carbon stores and provide food for mangrove-specialist fauna (e.g., crabs, shrimp). These are then fed upon by transient species that migrate into mangroves from adjacent ecosystems. When disturbed, mangroves lose/reduce their ecosystem functionality. In restored mangroves that have been replanted, the recovery of vegetation structure, productivity, carbon storage, and fauna are thought to follow a “chronosequence” where these ecosystem attributes increase with mangrove age/maturity. In the Philippines, most restoration projects have been ineffective, resulting in stunted growth and poor survival. It will take a longer period before these restored mangroves match the ecosystem attributes of an intact/healthy natural mangroves, or they can fail altogether. The recovery of naturally-recolonized abandoned fishponds may follow a similar chronosequence as replanted mangroves. Prior to fishpond creation, mangroves were clear cut and sediments excavated, resulting in total forest cover loss, massive losses of carbon stores, and reduced biodiversity. The sediments and water quality were degraded (e.g., high salinity, low dissolved oxygen). After peak productivity (approximately 25 years), fishponds are abandoned, leaving degraded conditions that can provide spaces for mangroves to colonize. As mangrove vegetation matures, carbon stores and sediment conditions also improve and may shift faunal assemblages from mangrove generalist-dominant to specialist-dominant.
This project will compare carbon sequestration, burial, sources, greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity among intact, replanted and mangrove-recolonized fishponds. The study will be conducted in the highly diverse Mindoro Oriental and Panay Islands, which have experienced massive mangrove losses from fishponds. Intact mangroves will be used as reference systems to examine the recovery trajectories of planted mangroves and mangrove-recolonized fishponds. Sediment samples will be tested to determine carbon source, age, and accumulation rate. Biodiversity assessments will be done using environmental DNA (eDNA) technology. The use of these approaches as a direct determinant of recovery trajectories and ecosystem services are pioneering efforts on studies of restoration ecology in Philippine mangroves.
The project will be implemented through science-community-policy linkage, in which technical research will be conducted in collaboration with community groups. Together with the U.S.-based collaborators, some undergraduate and graduate students will be trained in the assessment of carbon sequestration, carbon burial, and biodiversity across intact, replanted, and naturally-recolonized mangrove stands. Results from these technical studies will be translated into policy briefs and infographics to improve mangrove research and management at the local and national level in the Philippines. The project will facilitate proactive community engagement with fishers, youth, women, local schools, and local government officials as collaborators. The datasets generated from the project will be publicly shared online through a project-managed website. The project will encourage local government partners to institutionalize funding through a counterparting scheme and through local policy that will help sustain mangrove monitoring and management activities beyond the project’s duration.
Summary of Recent Activities
During the second quarter of 2023, the PEER ManCoRe team conducted their final sampling activities in two of their three project sites, continued with laboratory analyses, and organized a workshop for their project partners. The project conducted its third and final sampling in Ormoc City May 23-28. The sampling included vegetation assessment, 1-m and 20-cm core sediment sampling, and water quality analyses. Ormoc has 10 sites with complete zonations in natural, restored, and recolonized stands, with an additional newer restored stand. One recolonized site was added during the second sampling period. The final sampling for Oriental Mindoro was conducted June 19-28. It included vegetation assessment, 1-m and 20-cm core sediment sampling, and water quality analyses. Currently, the data is still being processed for analysis. With the addition of two part-time laboratory assistants (Mr. Sean Paul Manalo and Ms. Mareah Wayne Maramag), more consistent and productive progress is now being made on the processing of the sediment samples. As of late July 2023, all of the 1-m core samples from the three sites have already been processed for bulk density, organic matter, and inorganic carbon analyses, as well as 75 20-cm subsamples from Prieto Diaz and Oriental Mindoro. Lab analyses of the remaining samples will continue as planned, while initial analyses from preliminary data can already be performed by the third quarter.
The team held their Third Partners’ Meeting in Prieto Diaz, Sorsogon, April 23-26, 2023. Fifteen partner institutions from local government agencies, NGOs, private organizations, and academia participated. Some partners from the previous PEER Cycle 3 project also attended the event. The Mangrove Status Reporting Form was beta-tested on the first day with the help of project consultant Mr. Allan Amistoso. The preliminary dashboard resulting from the beta-testing was also presented, and the participants were asked for their comments and suggestions. On day two, the PhD student and research assistants discussed conventional mangrove assessment and sampling methods and demonstrated them through fieldwork in the project sites. These included mangrove vegetation assessment, sediment sampling/analyses, and water quality analyses.
In preparation for the research data platform that the project wants to launch for its partners and collaborators, a database has been prepared to document the published mangrove studies in the Philippines from 1979 to the present. This database will include the studies’ geographic distribution and will be categorized according to four main themes: conservation, restoration, socioeconomic development, and policy and governance. The preliminary web app can be viewed via https://sgsalmo.shinyapps.io/phlmangrove/.
The project has already begun drafting at least two manuscripts on (1) eDNA data that was obtained from Prof. Kajita’s laboratory in Iriomote, Japan and (2) a review of the state of Philippine mangroves. Senior high school students from the Philippine Science High School System (PSHS) will start their science immersion program (SIP) with the project July 3-21, 2023. Four students have been assigned under Dr. Salmo’s supervision. They will be taught how to conduct litter production analyses using the litter samples collected monthly in Prieto Diaz, Sorsogon. Meanwhile, the scheduled visit of Dr. Salmo and project PhD student Maria Elisa Gerona-Daga to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for training on isotope, stoichiometry, and radionuclide analyses will take place beginning in mid-August and lasting for three weeks. The visitors will bring sediment samples from the project sites with them for 210Pb analyses.
Publications
Christine B. Corcino Russel, Maria Elisa B. Gerona-Daga, Shaina C. Samoza, John Kenneth R. Fraga, and Severino G. Salmo. 2023. Status, limitations, and challenges of blue carbon studies in the Philippines: A bibliographic analysis, Regional Studies in Marine Science, Volume 62, 2023, 102916, ISSN 2352-4855, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsma.2023.102916.
Maria Elisa B. Gerona-Daga and Severino G. Salmo III. 2022. A systematic review of mangrove restoration studies in Southeast Asia: Challenges and opportunities for the United Nation’s Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Frontiers in Marine Science 1865, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.987737
S. Kannan, S. Balamurugan, P. Ragavan, B. Deivasigamani, A.K.S. Wee, S.G. Salmo III, M. Basyuni, and T. Kajita. 2022. eDNA envisaged conservation of IUCN threatened taxa of the tropical mangrove ecosystems. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, Volume 1115, 4th International Conference on Natural Resources and Technology 29-30 August 2022 Sumatera Utara, Indonesia. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/1115/1/012032/meta
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