...the VIP of global marine biodiversity

A 'VIP' of global marine biodiversity in the Philippines

Mikael Angelo Francisco

GMA News

September 28, 2019 

Whenever we hear about a newly discovered plant or animal, we tend to focus on the exotic location where it was found, or distinguishing morphological traits that merit its classification as an entirely new species. We rarely talk about how scientists determine new species, which isn’t really surprising. After all, it isn’t that hard to understand that the process of naming a new species is far more complicated than thinking of a cool-sounding Latin binomial name and calling it a day.

When experts come across an unidentified specimen, they use a system of concepts ranging from physical appearance to reproductive compatibility in figuring out whether or not it really is a new species. Another part of the process involves checking existing records to ensure that the seemingly new species isn’t just a variation of an existing one.

Admittedly, it’s not uncommon for scientists to discover new species each year. Roughly two million unique species have been catalogued over the course of human history; scientists estimate that the actual number of species in the wild could easily be five times that.

Nevertheless, one can only imagine the kind of rush that comes with adding yet another name to the taxonomic record. It’s probably the same kind of rush that Dr. Terry Goslinger, Senior Curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the California Academy of Sciences, has felt during virtually every single one of his visits to the Philippines over the last 27 years.

VIP: A very important place

“I started working on coral reefs in the Philippines in 1992,” Goslinger said at a recent forum in Manila. His colleagues had told him that the marine life in the Philippines was rich and diverse, in waters that were relatively unexplored. At that point, Goslinger had been conducting his research in Papua New Guinea.

^{Dr. Wilfredo Licuanan, Dr. Meg Burke, and Dr. Terry Goslinger speaking during a forum.}

“One of my colleagues said, ‘If you think Papua New Guinea is rich, you ought to come to the Philippines.’ And they were absolutely right, and I was astounded,” he said.

It didn’t take long for Goslinger and his fellow scientists to verify that the Philippines was exceptionally rich in marine biodiversity. Furthermore, they found that the richest area was a 1.14-million-hectare waterway separating Luzon and Mindoro known as the Verde Island Passage (or VIP).

The VIP is part of what marine scientists call the Coral Triangle. Located in the western region of the Pacific Ocean, the Coral Triangle encompasses the waters of the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste (also known as East Timor), and the Solomon Islands.

Serving as the underwater home of six marine turtle species, nearly 600 species of reef-building corals, and over 2,000 reef fish species, the Coral Triangle is recognized as the global center of marine biodiversity—and the VIP is the center of the center.

The VIP itself houses over 400 species of corals, and functions as a safe haven for hundreds of marine species from both subtropical and tropical climate zones. These include, but are not limited to, whale sharks, sea turtles, nudibranchs (colloquially known as sea slugs), and about 60 percent of the world’s shorefish species. Various species of fish and larvae also find their way to the VIP, carried by strong currents from the Pacific Ocean.

Additionally, local and foreign experts from different research and conservation institutions discover new marine species in the VIP every year. In 2018, the Academy announced that it had found 14 new species in the Philippines, a number of which were nudibranchs from the VIP.

These factors have earned the VIP not one, but two scientifically backed titles: the Center of the Center of Marine Shorefish Biodiversity, and the Center of the Center of the Marine Biodiversity of the World.

Coral lesson

For over three decades, Dr. Wilfredo Licuanan has been actively surveying and monitoring coral reefs across the country. Recently, he led a nationwide assessment of the overall health of coral reefs in the Philippines.

Throughout Licuanan’s career, however, there’s one significant detail about his work — specifically, about corals — that he has had to explain to various audiences and stakeholders more times than he can probably remember:

“When we talk about corals [in the context of coral reefs], we’re not talking about rocks; we’re talking about animals.”

According to Licuanan, a Full Professor of De La Salle University’s Biology department, each of these tiny coral animals — called polyps — possess very thin tissue.

“Most of the coral is actually skeleton,” he explained, “hence the common misconception that corals are rocks.”

Not all corals have skeletons. Soft corals (such as gorgonians, sea fans, and sea pens) are feathery, flexible, and plant-like. The ones that we tend to mistake for rocks are hard corals — corals with skeletons made of aragonite, a type of calcium carbonate. These skeletons are designed to protect the corals from strong waves or other animals.

Coral reefs are formed when polyps living in colonies (groups of hundreds, thousands, or even more) deposit calcium carbonate beneath their bodies and form large structures. For this reason, hard corals are also known as reef-building corals.

Coral reefs support some of the most biodiverse areas on the planet. Aside from being a fortified habitat for countless marine species, they also play a significant role in the food chain, as they provide important nutrients (such as nitrogen) and facilitate nutrient recycling (the movement and exchange of organic and inorganic matter back into the production of living matter).

Coral grief

Corals have a symbiotic relationship with microscopic algae called zooxanthellae. Zooxanthellae serve as the corals’ primary food source, as well as the reason behind their color.

However, when water temperatures grow warmer, the relationship becomes stressed, resulting in the expulsion of the algae from the corals. When this happens, the corals turn ghostly white--a phenomenon we call coral bleaching. And while this does not immediately kill corals, they will eventually die if they are unable to recover.

Rising ocean temperatures due to global warming are the primary cause of coral bleaching. Meanwhile, water pollution and abusive fishing practices are significant hindrances to coral recovery.

Consequently, the death and breakdown of corals and coral reefs will have severe effects on the countless marine populations that depend on the reefs for sustenance and protection. Coral bleaching also negatively impacts entire industries, such as fishing and tourism.

One of the most noteworthy examples of wide-scale coral bleaching in the Philippines happened in 2010, brought about by El Niño. It was one of three incidents documented by the Philippine Coral Bleaching Watch over the last twenty years.

“We lost many of the coral reefs in Southeast Asia, and we saw extensive bleaching in places like Palawan,” recalled Goslinger, “We saw a lot of coral death.”

At the time, approximately 25 to 30 percent of the VIP experienced massive coral bleaching.

“The corals were getting rid of their algae, looking very sick, and looking like they may die. This was the first time we had really seen this extent of coral bleaching and unhealthy conditions, and we were very, very concerned about that,” he said.

To the scientists’ surprise, however, things looked different when they returned to the VIP six weeks later.

“Already, the corals that had bleached were starting to regain their color, because they were absorbing new algae,” he said.

Eventually, the damage that the VIP’s corals had previously sustained was almost completely gone, revealing that apart from its rich biodiversity, the VIP also possesses natural resilience, for reasons that require further research to understand.

“There is great hope that the Verde Island Passage can repopulate other parts of the Philippines, and can be a genetic storehouse [as well],” he said.

Reef power, reef responsibility

Truth be told, while the VIP is full of marine wonders and mysteries, there may not be enough scientists in the Philippines (or even in the world) to understand what must be done and take the necessary measures before it’s too late.

And that’s precisely where citizen action comes into play.

“We think it’s not only important, but an obligation to help the local community understand why we’re there, and why the reefs are important,” explained Dr. Meg Burke, the Academy’s Associate Dean of Science Operations.

A frequent visitor of the Philippines and the VIP, Burke’s efforts are focused on science education—specifically, engaging the communities and empowering them with the skills and knowledge necessary to monitor their own reefs.

“If you can take that first step and help people understand that corals are living animals, you can often see the lightbulb go off,” shared Burke. “And it’s like, ‘Now I get it.' Because if corals are living animals, then when anchors are dropped on corals, you’re killing living animals. You’re not just breaking up a rock. If dynamites are used, you’re not just making big rocks smaller. You’re killing animals."

“Only by training local communities can you help ensure that there will be eyes on the reef — that people will be watching to see what’s going on,” she added.

Over the last few years, government agencies, conservation groups, and law enforcement have worked on initiatives to combat the major threats to the VIP’s sustainability: overfishing, illegal waste disposal, and daily commercial vessel activity. Just last year, the local government declared every fourth week of September to be the Verde Island Passage (VIP) Conservation Awareness Week.

Additionally, marine conservationists and concerned parties in the area have been pushing for the VIP’s nomination and proclamation as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site—not for recognition, but for the purposes of pressuring officials to take better care of the VIP. 

“We still have time to protect the richest reefs in the world," Goslinger assured. "Our treasure trove of biodiversity on this planet.”

—JCB, GMA News

...the biodiversity hotspot

‘Like spaghetti’: Worm-slurping, hopping rats discovered in the Philippines


Nandita Chandraprakash
Mongabay.com
26 August 2019

• The highly biodiverse island of Luzon in the Philippines has yielded up two species of rats new to science.
• Both are found high up on Luzon’s mountains, where they’ve evolved to feed on the earthworms that abound in the lush, wet habitat.
• Researchers say they hope the new discoveries, the latest of dozens made here since 2000, will help shine a spotlight on the importance of conserving Luzon’s unique habitats and wildlife.

As you explore the high altitudes of Luzon Island in the Philippines, you’ll encounter plenty of earthworms. There’s an abundance of them. So the ecosystem did exactly what nature does to bring balance: it evolved predators. And the most common earthworm predators here are rats. Two of them, in fact, are new to science, having only just been described in a paper published in July.

“They’re quite bizarre,” says lead author Eric Rickart, a curator at the Natural History Museum of Utah, University of Utah. “They hop around on their sturdy hind legs and large hind feet, almost like little kangaroos. They have long, delicate snouts, and almost no chewing teeth.”

The scientists caught one of these new “tweezer-beaked hopping rats” when they set traps with a regularly employed bait: peanut butter. The first capture, however, happened quite by chance as the rat wasn’t interested in the peanut butter. However, it did slurp up an earthworm when the scientists offered it one as an experiment. Subsequently, when the team, led by the late Danilo Balete of Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, set traps with live, wriggling earthworms as bait, they came across the two new earthworm-loving rat species.

Scientists named the new species Rhynchomys mingan and Rhynchomys labo after the mountains they’re respectively found on, Mount Mingan and Mount Labo. Their genus name comes from the ancient Greek rhyncos for “snout,” due to the rats’ long pointed noses, and mys for “mouse.”

The rats catch earthworms by quietly hop-stalking little trails they make among the mud and humus of the forest. Once they detect an earthworm, they quickly pounce. They then brush the dirt off and swallow the worm whole, “like a long spaghetti,” according to the scientists.

“One of the things that’s striking to see was their reflexes — they’re lightning quick,” says Lawrence Heaney, a curator at the Field Museum and co-author of the study. “It later became obvious why they’re that fast. They’re trying to catch a nimble earthworm that's partly in a hole.

The research team and porters at the beginning of the hike to Mount Labo, where one of the two new species was discovered. Heaney, Balete and Alviola are in the front, center. Image by TKTK.

Island evolution

Luzon is the largest Philippine island and, at 27 million years old, one of the oldest oceanic islands in the world with never any direct dry-land connection to continental Asia. With volcanoes and mountain ranges, life in Luzon has rich resources and undisturbed geographical diversity to evolve uniquely. Today, all native animals and plants of Luzon are descendants of ancient species that colonized the island by crossing formidable water barriers. The tweezer-beaked hopping rats of the Rhynchomys genus evolved from a single ancient colonization event 7 million to 9 million years ago. They are found nowhere else on Earth.

These “earthworm rats” had to adapt to the prey available: earthworms. They quietly hop trails, dig deep in the soil, work through leaf litter, or go up the trees among orchids and other epiphytes, all in search of the best sustenance available. The worms are common in Luzon’s high, wet altitudes, with a forest floor covered in fallen plant material that takes a long time to decompose.

An example of the mossy forest habitat where species of Rhynchomys live in northern Luzon. Image by L.R. Heaney.

Scientists find Luzon particularly fascinating because it’s a natural laboratory for studying evolution.

“These interwoven processes occur everywhere, but they can be studied most readily on islands because of the effects of isolation,” Rickart says. As for the rats, they have adapted uniquely to take advantage of the rainforest’s abundance in earthworms and provide a great example of how evolution works as generations of a species are isolated in confined pockets.

Scientists have described 30 new species of mammals in Luzon since 2000 and expect to find more. In that same period, just one new mammal species was discovered in all of Europe, a land mass 92 times larger than Luzon. Rickart and his team say they believe Luzon has the world’s greatest concentration of endemic mammals on the planet.

“There are sky islands within the big island [of Luzon],” Heaney adds.

Conservation of the rats and biodiversity in Luzon

Only 6 percent of the tropical old-growth forests that blanketed the Philippines 500 years ago survive today. The country is losing its rainforests to oil palm plantations and other agricultural interests.

But the two new species are lucky; they live in high-elevation forests — wet, cold and steep — and are not currently threatened by agriculture or logging. Still, experts say geothermal energy development and mining could pose threats down the road. And it may not take much to endanger the new species.

“As far as we know, the two species are geographically restricted to small areas on isolated mountains, so any broad-scale disturbance to their habitat could be a great threat,” Rickart says.

The good news is that scientists have seen a steady rise in the growth of secondary forests, albeit a slow one, over the last 25 years. The earthworm rats don’t necessarily require old-growth forests but do need high-altitude habitats at elevations above 1,500 meters (about 5,000 feet).

“What we see is that as the forest regenerates, the native mammals move back in,” Heaney says.

Cloud field atop Mount Mingan. Cloud forests are believed to contain the maximum mammalian diversity. Image by L.R. Heaney/Field Museum of Natural History.

Locals understand the importance of the forests, especially old-growth ones, against the pummeling of typhoons, according to the researchers. Without forests in higher lands, and the absorbent, mulch-carpeted mossy floors that act as intact watersheds, typhoons can cause extensive damage, including loss of life, due to erosion, landslides, mudslides and floods.

“The local populations and governments want to protect the land on which they depend for water and indirect resources,” Heaney says, adding that the researchers got a lot of support from the Philippines Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

The scientists say they hope the discovery of the tweezer-beaked hopping rats, and of all the other creatures here in recent decades, will put additional focus on conservation in Luzon. When a new species is discovered, it provides publicity and spark, Heaney says: “It often helps a lot to promote the establishment of new protected areas and national parks.” The docile earthworm-slurping rats, it turns out, may inadvertently promote conservation in their home range.

Map of the Philippine archipelago, showing the locations of modern islands in green, Late Pleistocene (ice-age) islands in light blue, and deep seas in dark blue. From “The Mammals of Luzon Island: Biogeography and Natural History of a Philippine Fauna,” Johns Hopkins University Press. Image © Heaney, Balete and Rickart (2016).

...the new sardine specie

New sardine species thrives in Manila Bay 

Manila Standard

25 March 2019

Manila Bay’s ecosystem is not dying. In fact, a new sardine species, Sardinella pacifica, has been discovered in Manila Bay waters and in other parts of the country. 

According to a peer-reviewed journal article, Japanese taxonomists HarutakaHata and Hiroyuki Motomura collected samples from Manila Bay, Quezon, Sorsogon and Samar and those revealed distinct characteristics from other sardine species, concluding a new species of sardines was found only in the Philippines.

“We appeal to President Rodrigo Duterte to stop all reclamation projects lined up in Manila Bay,” said Gloria Estenzo Ramos, vice president of Oceana in the Philippines.

“This can be the legacy of your administration―that you were able to save the rich ecosystem of Manila Bay that carries national and natural heritage significance, especially with the discovery of this new sardine species i Philippine waters.” 

Manila Bay was identified by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources as a spawning area of sardines and is still one of the main fishing grounds of artisanal fishermen who depend on the sea for their livelihood. Sardines is on top of the kinds of fish caught in the area.

“Instead of dumping and filling our seas that bury and destroy mangroves, sea grass beds, corals and other fisheries habitats, let’s collectively save and protect these from destruction because of so-called “development” projects,” Ramos said. 

“More importantly, let’s help our artisanal fishermen earn a decent livelihood to feed their families from our rich marine resources that are known all over the world.”

Oceana appealed to Duterte to review and assess the projects submitted to the Philippine Reclamation Authority that would result in irreversible damage to the marine habitats. 

Ramos said the irreparable destruction in Manila Bay would leave the artisanal fishermen almost without income because of low or no catch, and their families hungry and displaced.

“These projects violate our constitutional right to balanced and healthful ecology, as well as our fisheries and environmental laws,” Ramos said. 

Oceana is co-organizing with Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas, and Center for Environmental Concerns a People’s Summit on Reclamation on March 26 to 27. 

The summit will discuss scientific studies and legal review with the government, academe, scientists and legal experts, non-government organizations and the urban poor and coastal communities in Manila Bay.