ARMS Philippines

A collaborative work that aims to monitor biodiversity and determine baseline information on carbonate parameters using Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structure (ARMS) deployed at 5 NIPAS sites. *Project Title: Monitoring Biodiversity at NIPAS Sites and Ocean Acidification Baseline Study

*Main Objective: To monitor biodiversity and determine baseline information on carbonate parameters at 5 NIPAS sites

*Five (5) NIPAS sites: Palaui; Masinloc; VIP; Surigao; Tubbataha

*Collection and Processing:

-Divers will deploy/recover ARMS units in specific reef sites within National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS). This will give us an insight on change in biodiversity over time due to anthropogenic stress, including ocean acidification. ARMS (Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures) mimics the complexity of coral reefs to attract/collect colonizing invertebrates and provide a systematic, consistent, comparable, time series method to monitor cryptic reef diversity (adopted by NOAA, >800ARMS worldwide).

-During recovery, the ARMS unit will be encapsulated and taken to the surface. The collected organisms will be separated by scraping the plates and sieving with (macrofauna) and (microfauna). The specimens will be bulked and preserved for DNA analysis.

-Seawater samples will also be collected and analyzed to contribute in developing maps on pH and aragonite saturation in the country.

* Project members:

Project Leader: Maria Lourdes San Diego-McGlone (UP-MSI)
Project Staff: Marivene Manuel-Santos (National Museum)
Project Staff: Ma. Carmen Lagman (De La salle University)
Project Staff: Rachel Gotanco (UP-MSI)
University Researcher IV: Charissa Ferrera
Senior Research Assistant: Mary Chris Lagumen (UP-MSI)
Senior Research Assistant: Jane Santiago (De La Salle University)
Senior Research Assistant: Joseph Foronda (National Museum)
Laboratory Technician II: Jay Burce (UP-MSI)