Recently in Biodiversity Category

By Izah Morales INQUIRER.net MANILA, Philippines--Colored tags attached to tuna species like the “tangi” or “tambakul” can earn fishermen or consumers money rewards, an official of the Department of Agriculture said Monday. “This tuna tagging project carries a $10 reward for yellow tag, $50 for green tag and $250 for orange tag. The latter two have accompanying devices inserted in the body cavity of the fish (near the abdomen). The tag on the former is attached on the back of the fish near the second dorsal fin,” said Malcolm Sarmiento, director Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in DA’s press statement. “We are calling on our fishermen and the consuming public to surrender to BFAR or the LGUs, any tag found in fishes particularly big-eye, skipjack, or yellowfin tuna and other marine fishes, as these are part of scientific studies,” Sarmiento said. Sarmiento told INQUIRER.net that people can return the tags at the nearest BFAR office to get their reward. The official said the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute under BFAR would give the corresponding reward. The Philippines is part of a Tuna tagging project spearheaded by the Oceanic Fisheries Programme (OFP) based in New Caledonia, according to Sarmiento. “The tagging is done to aid the management measures and to validate the changes in migratory patterns of large pelagic species like tuna, which might be brought about by climate change,” added Sarmiento in a phone interview with INQUIRER.net. In a statement issued by OFP, the tagging project would provide information on fishery exploitation rates and population sizes in the Western and Central Pacific.

Izah Morales INQUIRER.net A NEW rodent species discovered in May 2006 in Mt. Hamiguitan in Davao Oriental needs a wider area of habitat, researchers said. Currently, the Batomys hamiguitan or the Hamiguitan hairy-tailed rat lives in the Mt. Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary, which is 6,834 hectares in total surface area. However, this sanctuary is adjacent to seven Mineral Production Sharing Agreements (MPSA) also in Mt. Hamiguitan which cover 17,572 hectares, which is half of the mountain's cover. Leonilo Rivera, DENR Protected Area and Wildlife Division Chief of Region XI, said that expanding the protected area will take some time. However, Edwin Domingo, assistant director of DENR Mines and Geosciences Bureau, clarified that there is no mining activity yet in Mt. Hamiguitan. "We don't have any conflict with [the] protected area. Normally, pinag-aaway kami [they let us fight]. Any and all protected and critical areas proclaimed as watershed are closed to mining applications, so if by chance, nagsubmit ka sa amin ng [you submit an] application, and we find out when we double check that you're encroaching in this, we have to tell you that you have to [take] that out," said Domingo. Domingo said the mining applications have already existed prior to the proposal to make the area a protected area. "It is not up to us in the DENR to make that categorical statement because in the NIPAS [National Integrated Protected Areas System] law, there is a procedural guideline. There is a process for consultation. We are not in the position to say, yes or no," said Domingo when asked on their action on the requested expansion of the protected area. Republic Act 7586 or the National Integrated Protected Areas System NIPAS law protects "outstandingly remarkable areas and biologically important public lands that are habitats of rare and endangered species of plants and animals representative of bio-geographic zones and related ecosystems." Through Republic Act 9303, Mt. Hamiguitan was declared as a protected area under the category of wildlife sanctuary in July 2004. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List, Mt. Hamiguitan includes at least 11 endangered vertebrate species. "We are requesting the Protected Area Management Board to consider expanding the current protected to cover the majority of the habitat of the rare and restricted Hamiguitan hairy-tailed rat," said Jayson Ibañez, coordinator of the field research program of the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF). Researchers from the US-based Field Museum of Natural History discovered the Hamiguitan hairy-tailed rat during an expedition in the Davao region. Researchers along with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the PEF collected specimens from Mt. Hamiguitan and conducted a biodiversity survey that led to the discovery of the new species. "It took three years because we compared it with other specimens to determine whether it's a new species," said Ibañez. "The Hamiguitan hairy-tailed rat is the first mammal to be described from Eastern Mindanao and is the first mammal that is thought to live only in that area. Most mammals unique to Mindanao were described from Mt. Apo or Mt. Kitanglad. This points eastern Mindanao, especially Mt. Hamiguitan as a biologically unique part of the Philippines," added Danilo Balete, team leader and lead author from the Field Museum of Natural History. In a statement released by DENR, it described the Hamiguitan hairy-tailed rat as a yellow-brown animal with a long furry tail, which weighs about 175 grams and lives only in elevations of 950 meters and up, and in dwarf mossy forests of areas less than 10 square kilometers. Ibañez added that four species of the genus Batomys can be found in the country. The species Batomys dentatus and Batomys granti lived in Luzon, Batomys salomonseni in Mindanao, and Batomys russatus in the Dinagat Island. DENR Secretary Lito Atienza said that there is a very high rate of more discoveries of new species in the country, but some of these species might already be threatened before they are discovered. "The Philippines has one of the largest numbers of unique species of mammals [in] any place in the world; over 125 mammal species live only in the Philippines. There is truly a wealth of animal and plant life here that is worth protecting," said Lawrence Heaney, curator of Mammals at the Field Museum, in a statement. The Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau endorsed the inclusion of Mt. Hamiguitan to the UNESCO World Heritage. "Mt. Hamiguitan fully deserves to be among the global heritage sites," said Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau director Mundita Lim. The Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources and Development (PCCARD) noted in its website that Mt. Hamiguitan in Davao Oriental is also the country's largest pygmy forest, which is also known as a bonsai forest. PCCARD reported that the mountain has been a home to five endangered species, 27 rare species, 44 endemic species and 59 economically important species. These include the golden-crown flying fox, Philippine tarsier, Philippine warty pig, Philippine brown deer, Philippine Mossy-pygmy Fruit Bat, and the Asian Palm Civet.

Agence France-Presse SYDNEY -- A sharp slowdown in coral growth on Australia's Great Barrier Reef since 1990 is a warning sign that precipitous changes in the world’s oceans may be imminent, scientists said Friday. Strong evidence points to the cause being a combination of warmer seas and higher acidity from increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, Australian Institute of Marine Science researchers reported. "The data suggest that this severe and sudden decline in calcification is unprecedented in at least 400 years," said Glenn De’ath, principal author of a paper published Friday in the international journal Science. The research shows that corals on the reef have slowed their growth by more than 14 percent since the "tipping point" year of 1990 and on current trends the corals would stop growing altogether by 2050. "It is cause for extreme concern that such changes are already evident, with the relatively modest climate changes observed to date, in the world’s best protected and managed coral reef ecosystem," said co-author Janice Lough. Coral skeletons form the backbone of reef ecosystems and provide the habitat for tens of thousands of plant and animal species and more acidic oceans will affect many sea creatures, not just coral, a statement on the report said. "All calcifying organisms that are central to the function of marine ecosystems and food webs will be affected, and precipitous changes in the biodiversity and productivity of the world’s oceans may be imminent," it added. The findings are based on analyses of annual growth bands -- like rings on trees -- extending back in time up to 400 years. Rising sea temperatures are blamed on global warming caused by the build-up in the atmosphere of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide -- which is also blamed for higher acidity in sea water. A UN report warned in 2007 that the Great Barrier Reef, described as the world's largest living organism, could be killed by climate change within decades. The World Heritage site and major tourist attraction, stretching over more than 345,000 square kilometres (133,000 sq miles) off Australia's east coast, could become "functionally extinct", the report said. The journal Science is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

By Izah Morales INQUIRER.net IF you’re tired of reading about the fertilizer fund scam issue, then maybe it’s time to turn the leaf and make your own organic fertilizer in the backyard. During a walk at the La Mesa Ecopark, I noticed vermiculturist Rogelio Moreno mixing soil with worms, which they called Vermicompost, an organic fertilizer. The worms were digging holes and gliding in the soil. While some people would feel icky about worms, Moreno considers them as “angels of the Earth.” “Ang kagandahan ng mga bulate, ang kanyang pupu, malaking katulungan sa mga farmers. Binubuhay nito ang lupa. [The worms’ feces are a big help to farmers because it enriches and enlivens the soil.],” says Moreno. Moreno willingly taught me how to make vermicompost. First, you should collect biodegradable garbage like dried leaves, fruit and vegetable peelings and animal feces. Then place them in an empty bed or container. Cover the garbage with dried leaves and straw. You can use all kinds of leaves except for mahogany, eucalyptus and nymph leaves, says Moreno. To avoid the foul smell, add coco dust. Then water the bed everyday. Add the worms on top of the compost. After five days, you will notice that the worms have gone down. Cover it with a net. You will know that you have a fertilizer when the feces are fine. After two months, you can collect the fertilizer. Moreno says a farmer can earn P 9,000 from one fertilizer bed. Organic fertilizer will not only make your plants healthy but will make your pockets wealthy.

Agence France-Presse PARIS -- Men significantly outnumbered women in the "out-of-Africa" migration some 60,000 years ago that eventually populated the rest of the world, according to a new study. Africa is known to be the cradle of human evolution, and recent studies show that the people inhabiting other continents originate from a relatively small band of Homo sapiens who moved through the Near East, into Europe and beyond some 50,000 and 70,000 years ago. But until now no one had figured out a way to determine what the sex-ratio of this so-called founding population might have been. A quartet of researchers led by Alon Keinan at the Harvard Medical School thought that the secret might be locked inside differences in genetic code across distinct geographic regions. They knew that the percentage of X chromosomes in a given population varies depending on the proportion of men. The "X" and "Y" chromosomes determine sex -- men have one of each, while women have two X chromosomes. The other 22 chromosome pairings in the human genome are all the same. It was also known that this ratio affects the rate at which mutations randomly spread through the X chromosome over dozens or hundreds of generations as compared to the mutation rate in other, non-sex, chromosomes. Keinan and colleagues reasoned that if X-chromosomes changed more quickly than expected, then it almost certainly meant that our common ancestors who wandered out of Africa were predominantly male. To test their theory, they compared the genetic makeup of Africans first with northern Europeans, and then again with Asians. "The results point to a period of accelerated drift on chromosome X that largely occurred after the split of West Africa and non-Africans, but before the separation of North Europeans and East Asian," the conclude. Genetic drift is a term that refers to random mutations in genes, as opposed to changes that occur through natural selection. Keinan acknowledged that if a small fraction of the women in the migratory exodus from Africa had given birth to all of the children, there might still have been parity in the number of males and females. But this seemed highly unlikely, he said, adding that his findings were "in line with what anthropologists have taught us about hunter-gatherer populations in which short distance migration is primarily by women and long distance migration primarily by men." The study was published in Nature Publishing Group's journal Nature Genetics.

By Izah Morales Was there a time that you wish to spend class outside the classroom? Now, you don’t have to sit and feel sleepy while listening to an hour and a half lecture of ecology in class. The Eco-Academy at the La Mesa Ecopark brings learning outside the classroom. “Nature is your classroom. You’re involved in the activities not only in lectures. You learn from your surroundings. What you learn is how nature works,” said Antonio de Castro, environmental advocate and one of the members of the Eco-Academy Project Development team.
Elizabeth Protacio-De Castro, associate professor of the Department of Psychology at the University of the Philippines Diliman, described learning in the Eco-Academy as interactive and hands-on. Each activity is accompanied by a module. The modules include watershed, basic organic planting and gardening, waste management, vermiculturing and composting, organic farming, rice planting, global warming, climate change and biodiversity conservation. “The distinct facility is the La Mesa resource. Not all universities can provide an education on how to conserve a watershed. By coming to La Mesa, you understand how important water is,” added Marianita Girlie Villariba, resident gender educator of Education for Life. According to Protacio-de Castro, inculcating deep respect and appreciation for nature is key to other values. “The grace and beauty of God’s creation is most perfectly found in nature. If the students can learn this, all of the other values will come -- the caring the sharing, the nurturing,” said Protacio-de Castro. During the launch of the Eco-Academy multi-purpose hall, Congresswoman Ana Rosa Susano called for global environmental awareness among the youth. “We need to explore more knowledge on how to keep the environment healthy and to be more aware of the pollution not only in the city but all over the world,” said Susano. Aside from the experiential learning from the Eco-Academy, the La Mesa Ecopark also features the electronic jeepneys from the Department of Tourism (DOT), which would serve as a green vehicle for visitors. “Having electronic jeepneys will allow them to see these new technologies that we can use so that there is a balance between development and environmental protection,” said Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano. The La Mesa Ecopark has recorded 148, 437 student visitors from 804 schools nationwide in 2006 and 2007. Bantay Kalikasan established the Eco-Academy to further environmental awareness through education and advocacy. It hopes to operate the academy by first quarter of 2009.

By Alex Villafania INQUIRER.net THE SOON-TO-BE opened Manila Ocean Park (MOP) has tied up with the conservation group World Wide Fund for Nature Philippines (WWF) largely to highlight public awareness, as well as to monitor the MOP's adherence to local and international laws on animal acquisition and maintenance. The partnership aims to strengthen the WWF's public information on the protection of marine ecosystems in the Philippines through the educational materials provided by the MOP to visitors. The WWF will also ensure that the MOP does not include protected or endangered species of marine life as part of its exhibits.
Online Videos by Veoh.com MOP president Lim Chee Yong told reporters that the park, which will open in February this year, has been given strict limitations not to include protected species of marine flora and fauna, which includes wild corals, sea turtles and all marine mammals. The only time that the MOP can maintain such protected animals is if some caught specimens are unable to fend for themselves due to physical injury but otherwise, the MOP cannot keep such creatures. MOP will also hire marine sciences experts, mostly coming from the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute. One expert is UP assistant professor of Environmental Science Benjamin Vallejo, who said the MOP can also serve as a research facility. Potential studies they could be conducting are human-assisted coral farming as well as testing the effects of global climate change on local species of coral. WWF vice chairman Jose Lorenzo Tan said the MOP is a good venue for informing the public regarding the importance of the country's marine ecosystems, as well as the dangers of disregarding it. While the MOP will only maintain up to 300 species of marine creatures, Tan said this number already represents the sea ecosystem of the Philippines. Tan said the WWF will continuously provide the MOP with the latest information on marine sciences and will collaborate with them on the educational materials to be developed for their environmental conservation drives. The MOP will initially open its oceanarium, a huge facility housing several water tanks. It will then build a park and a hotel after the opening. The entire facility will cost approximately P1 billion to build.

By Alex Villafania INQUIRER.net IN 1994, then US Vice President Al Gore and several high level government officials started the Global Learning and Observations to the Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program, whose goal is to encourage scientists worldwide to share their research with students through an online community. It was part of the Earth Day Celebrations for that year. The GLOBE Program's main goal is to provide information in the protection and conservation of the earth's natural resources by encouraging current and future scientists to work together. Its founding members include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Science Foundation. But what sets the GLOBE Program apart from other scientific communities is that it allows students to directly contact scientists on specific topics in a sort of mentorship system. Likewise, students and their teachers can follow up on projects with their own researches, then upload the information they gather so as to contribute to the pool of knowledge on specific topics. So far, 19,000 schools from 109 countries are part of the GLOBE Program, with 3,700 teachers trained. PSHS in action The Philippines is one of the earliest members of the GLOBE Program, having joined it in 1999. In smaller scale operations, the GLOBE-Philippines activities have so far been able to enlist around 64 schools, nine of which were from Philippine Science High School (PSHS) campuses that are managed by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). Philippine Science High School office-in-charge Deputy Executive Director Corazon Monica Sabio said that since joining the GLOBE program, PSHS has produced a good amount of scientific research posted on the GLOBE website. It has also trained four GLOBE master trainers, who are the highest ranking GLOBE member per country. "The GLOBE master trainers' responsibilities are to train other teachers on proper scientific approaches, updating information on the GLOBE website, and also ensuring quality control over information," Sabio said. In fact, Sabio added that the Philippines is the core group for other GLOBE master trainers in Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand and Indonesia. There are already a few hundred GLOBE master trainers in the whole of Asia. Sabio said that GLOBE-Philippines member teachers and trainers would be given opportunity to update the website with research materials and local topics. In most cases, students can interact with established scientists who are members of the GLOBE website community. The response time for a query is usually around a few hours to about two days, though Sabio assured that nearly all queries are answered by the professionals, with words of encouragement to the aspiring student scientists. "Our goal is actually produce comprehensive information about the country's biodiversity, to encourage our young people to be part of conservation, not just as scientists but as members of the community. We also want our leaders to have an idea on how to legislate for the protection and conservation of our natural resources by using information that local people have gathered," Sabio said. Slow start Sabio, who is the country coordinator of GLOBE-Philippines, said the GLOBE-Philippines program is not without drawbacks among which includes the slow integration of new research in the country's high school science curriculum. "Students have to be given the knowledge and skill in collecting data using the scientific method. Without it, they would have to be retrained to ensure the quality of material they produce," Sabio said. Another major problem is the lack of financial assistance for some schools that do not have proper equipment especially for the laboratories. While the DOST has also donated equipment to some GLOBE-Philippines members, other schools have to wait for available budget or donations to buy new laboratory instruments." "We also saw a problem in connectivity; students and their teachers won't be able to upload new information or even ask for assistance from GLOBE Program scientists unless they have Internet connection," Sabio said. There is also some backlog in uploading information, according to Sabio, as lack of dedicated manpower is also causing some issues. "We're slowly resolving these problems, one at a time." New plans Sabio has identified a few plans of the DOST-PSHS for the GLOBE-Philippines program hopefully leading to a national implementation. Among these are looking for more sponsorships and donations for the procurement of field equipment and laboratory instruments, as well as getting people to manage data. They also plan to train more Globe master trainers who will spread their knowledge to other schools nationwide. "We should also recognize the source of local information to give them credit for their contributions. That way we can truly motivate younger people to conserve our country's natural resources," Sabio said.

TALK about a massive undertaking. A free website will catalogue the planet's 1.8 million known living creatures, allowing scientists from all over the world to collaborate online. Here's an excerpt from the Agence France-Presse article:

The site "will provide valuable biodiversity and conservation information to anyone, anywhere, at any time," said James Edwards, a biologist picked to head the project. "Through collaboration, we all can increase our appreciation of the immense variety of life, the challenges to it, and ways to conserve biodiversity," he said. Edwards told Agence France-Presse he hopes the Encyclopedia of Life will have the same catalytic effect the Human Genome Project has had on biology. "Making the information about the genetic sequences of organisms public has . . . revolutionized the way we do molecular biology and genetics," he said.