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Journal Articles - UP - MSI

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    Distribution, temporal change, and conservation status of tropical seagrass beds in Southeast Asia: 2000–2020
    Sudo, Kenji; Quiros, T. E. Angela L.; Prathep, Anchana; Luong, Cao Van; Lin, Hsing-Juh; Bujang, Japar Sidik; Ooi, Jillian Lean Sim; Fortes, Miguel D.; Zakaria, Muta Harah; Yaakub, Siti Maryam; Tan, Yi Mei; Huang, Xiaoping; Nakaoka, Masahiro (Frontiers Media SA, 2021-07-08)
    Although Southeast Asia is a hotspot of global seagrass diversity, there are considerable information gaps in the distribution of seagrass beds. Broad-scale seagrass distribution has not been updated in the global seagrass database by UNEP-WCMC since 2000, although studies on seagrasses have been undertaken intensively in each region. Here we analyze the recent distribution of tropical seagrass beds, their temporal changes, causes of decline and conservation status in Southeast Asia (plus southern mainland China, Taiwan and Ryukyu Island of Japan) using data collected after 2000. Based on the 195 literature published since 2000, we identified 1,259 point data and 1,461 polygon data showing the distribution of seagrass beds. A large discrepancy was found in the seagrass bed distribution between our updated data and the UNEP-WCMC database, mostly due to inaccurate and low resolution location information in the latter. Temporal changes in seagrass bed area analyzed for 68 sites in nine countries/regions demonstrated that more than 60% of seagrass beds declined at an average rate of 10.9% year–1, whereas 20% of beds increased at an average rate of 8.1% year–1, leading to an overall average decline of 4.7% year–1. Various types of human-induced threats were reported as causes for the decline, including coastal development, fisheries/aquaculture, and natural factors such as typhoons and tsunamis. The percentage of seagrass beds covered with existing marine protected areas (MPAs) varied greatly among countries/regions, from less than 1% in Brunei Darussalam and Singapore to 100% in southern Japan. However, the degree of conservation regulation was not sufficient even in regions with higher MPA coverage. The percentage of seagrass beds within EBSAs (Ecologically and Biologically Significant Area determined by the Convention of Biological Diversity) was higher than that within MPAs because EBSAs cover a greater area than MPAs. Therefore, designating EBSAs as legally effective MPAs can greatly improve the conservation status of seagrass beds in Southeast Asia.
    This manuscript is a contribution to the Asia-Pacific Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (AP-MBON) of the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON). We are grateful to the members of Phuket Marine Biological Center in Thailand and the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology for providing local literature and data on seagrass bed distribution. This paper is dedicated to Chittima Aryuthaka who contributed greatly to the development of marine biology and ecology in Asia during her lifetime.
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    Through the boundaries: Environmental factors affecting reef benthic cover in marine protected areas in the Philippines
    Panga, Fleurdeliz M.; Anticamara, Jonathan A.; Quibilan, Miledel Christine C.; Atrigenio, Michael P.; Aliño, Porfirio M. (Frontiers Media SA, 2021-08-18)
    Philippine coral reefs have been on the decline since the 1970s, and this degradation has posed a risk to biodiversity, food security, and livelihood in the country. In an effort to arrest this degradation, marine protected areas (MPAs) were established across the country. MPAs are known to improve fish biomass, but their effect on live coral cover and other benthos is not yet well documented and understood. In this study, 28 MPAs across the Philippines were surveyed comparing benthic cover and indices between protected reefs and adjacent unprotected reefs. No consistent differences were found between reefs inside and outside MPAs through all the benthic categories and reef health indices considered that are indicative of protection effects or recovery within MPAs. However, there were notable site-specific differences in benthic cover across the study MPAs-suggesting that factors other than protection play important roles in influencing benthic cover inside and outside of MPAs. Storm frequency and proximity to rivers, as a proxy for siltation, were the strongest negative correlates to live coral cover. Also, high coastal population, a proxy for pollution, and occurrence of blast and poison fishing positively correlated with high dead coral cover. The lack of significant difference in benthic cover between reefs inside and outside MPAs suggests that protection does not necessarily guarantee immediate improvement in benthic condition. Correlations between benthic condition and storm frequency, siltation, and pollution suggest that it is necessary to augment MPAs with other management strategies that will address the multiple stressors that are usually indiscriminate of MPA boundaries. Supplementing long-term and systematic monitoring of benthic cover and biodiversity inside and outside of MPAs with data on other important environmental and human impact variables will help improve understanding of benthic cover and biodiversity dynamics inside and outside of MPA boundaries.
    We would like to thank RARE Philippines and USAID, in collaboration with the Marine Environment and Resources Foundation (MERF), for research funding, coordination, and support in the execution of this research. We would also like to thank the RARE Conservation Fellows and Local Government Units for logistical support and coordination on all of the MPAs studied. We would also like to thank the Fisheries team of the MSI Community Laboratory for the municipal profile data, and the MSI Physical Oceanography Laboratory for the storm frequency and relative exposure index used in the environmental correlation. We would also like to thank the rest of the MERF-RARE Team/MSI Community Ecology Laboratory who joined and supported the many months of data gathering, encoding, and data analysis.
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    Spatial planning insights for Philippine coral reef conservation using larval connectivity networks
    Pata, Patrick R.; Yñiguez, Aletta T. (Frontiers Media SA, 2021-10-06)
    The marine habitats of the Philippines are recognized to be some of the most biodiverse systems globally yet only 1.7% of its seas are designated as marine protected areas (MPAs) with varying levels of implementation. Many of these MPAs were established based on local-scale conservation and fisheries objectives without considering larger-scale ecological connections. The connectivity of reefs through larval dispersal is important in the regional-scale resilience against anthropogenic disturbances and is considered a significant criterion in planning for MPAs. In this study, we provide insights into the delineation of ecologically connected MPA networks using larval dispersal modeling and network analysis. We characterized the network properties of the Philippine coral reefs, organized as 252 reef nodes, based on the larval connectivity networks of a branching coral, sea urchin, and grouper. We then evaluated the distribution of the existing 1,060 MPAs relative to the connectivity patterns. All reef nodes were found to be highly interconnected with a mean shortest path ranging from 1.96 to 4.06. Reef nodes were then ranked according to their relative importance in regional connectivity based on five connectivity indices. Despite the between-organism and between-index variability in rankings, there were reefs nodes, mostly located offshore and at major straits, which consistently ranked high. We found that the distribution of existing MPAs partially capture some of the regional connectivity functions but there is a spatial mismatch between the primarily coastal MPAs and the high-ranking reef nodes. Furthermore, network partitioning identified subnetworks and dispersal barriers. The existing MPAs were found to be disproportionately distributed to a few subnetworks and that the largest subnetworks do not contain the greatest number of MPAs. Considering these gaps, we suggest expanding the coverage of protected areas especially in underrepresented reef networks to meaningfully capture national-scale connectivity and meet global conservation objectives.
    We would like to thank Dr. Vera Horigue and Andrew Torres for constructive comments and suggestions during the early versions of this paper. We also thank the members of the Biological Oceanography and Modeling of Ecosystems (BiOME) Laboratory who assisted in running model simulations.