Yolanda Sotelo-Fuertes, Inquirer 22 Nov 07
Marine Ecosystem's Last Frontier
BOLINAO, Pangasinan – Seagrass, the “last frontier” of the marine ecosystems, got the attention it deserved during a two-week, seven-country regional training course on management models and strategies for coral reef and seagrass ecosystems conducted here by the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute (UPMSI).
Dr. Miguel Fortes, a marine scientist and professor of marine science at the UPMSI, said that of the marine habitats, corals are the most popular, mangroves the most disturbed and seagrass beds the least studied.
Vanishing corals
“The mangrove forests are almost decimated and coral cover is down to less than 5 percent. We should protect the seagrass beds because they are the last frontier of the ecosystems,” he said.
The training course, attended by participants who are involved in coral and seagrass management in their countries, was anchored on the principle that “coral reefs and seagrass ecosystems are contiguous, interconnected structurally and functionally.”
The course was in line with objectives of the United Nations Environment Program/Global Environment Facility (UNEP/GEF) South China Sea Project.
Chain reaction
Participants came from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
Fortes said in the past, studies on the three marine ecosystems were done separately but “evidence shows the connection between them, that if you destroy mangroves, you destroy corals, and you destroy seagrass beds.”
Except the Philippines, the other countries shared common problems like the lack of good assessment of seagrass beds, including the factors that destroy them.
The Philippines has also the most seagrass species, “but only maybe because more studies have been conducted here,” Fortes said.
Bolinao trip
The participants were brought to an exposure trip to the flat reefs of Cape Bolinao where coral reefs abound and where the largest concentration of seagrass beds in the country (22,500 square kilometers, 10 species) is found.
Fortes said seagrass beds and coral reefs should be considered as a macro-system of the tropical world that needs an integrated approach for management and protection. But seagrass beds have not been given much attention because “they are grass and not as attractive as the colorful corals,” he said.
“But they are as useful as corals,” said Fortes, who has been studying seagrass for 20 years.
CO2 eaters
Being plants, seagrass beds mitigate global warming and account for 12 percent uptake of global carbon dioxide, he said.
As plants, they also provide oxygen to water, trap and cycle nutrients, stabilize sediments and improve water transparency and quality.
They also reduce the strength of waves, thus protecting the shorelines, provide food and habitat for microbes and other flora and fauna, and interact with coral reefs and mangroves.
“Seagrass beds are eco tomes (transition zones) between mangroves and corals. They trap silts from mangroves so the silt will not reach the corals which are very sensitive to siltation,” he said.
Fish friends
Some fish need both seagrass meadows and coral reefs to thrive, Fortes said. He gave as an example the rabbit fish which residents of this town make into padas (bagoong) when in juvenile stage, and into danggit (sun dried) when in adult stage.
“Some species of rabbit fish spawn in sea bed about 12 kilometers from shore. The young fish are herbivores and graze at seagrass beds but when they are sexually mature, they stay at coral reefs,” he said. Other species of rabbit fish stay at mangrove areas.
But the seagrass, though hardy, is also affected by environmental degradation, Fortes said.
