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Dr. Al Licuanan (DLSU), Dr. Cesar Villanoy, Dr. Vera Horigue, Mags Quibilan, Kubi Follosco and Dr. Perry Aliño (UP MSI) at PAMS13. (Photo: Philippines Country Coordinating Unit)

UP MSI heads to PAMS, delivers keynotes


CCRES team members from the University of Philippines Marine Science Institute (UP MSI) and De La Salle University (DLSU) attended the 13th National Symposium on Marine Science in General Santos City at Mindanao, Philippines, during October.

“High biodiversity builds resilience” was the main message in the keynote address delivered by the UP MSI’s Dr. Perry Aliño at the symposium, which is convened biennially by the Philippine Association of Marine Scientists (PAMS), now in its 25th year.

In celebrating the rich history of marine science research in the Philippines, Dr. Cesar Villanoy of the UP MSI gave a plenary presentation on Day 2 about the evolution of physical oceanography approaches in the country.

This year, the theme was “Moving towards Resilient Ecosystems,” with more than 300 papers presented on range of key topics, including ecosystem function, structure and identity; ecosystem disturbance or change; and man, environment and society.

CCRES postdoc Dr. Vera Horigue of the UP MSI facilitated a session on “Connectivity, MPA networks and large marine ecosystems,” where she also presented initial results of a spatially-explicit version of the fisheries management tool FISH-BE. Also in this session, PhD scholar Leilani Solera of the UP MSI gave a lively talk on how connectivity information changes with model resolution.

PhD scholar Bayosa Aya Cariño of the Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology (IESM) in UP Diliman presented a preliminary run of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to evaluate the state of the watersheds draining into Bacuit Bay in the CCRES pilot site El Nido, Palawan.

MS student Anabel Gammaru talked about high resolution measurements of hydrodynamics in the fringing reefs of Miniloc and Shimizu Islands in El Nido.

Dr. Cai Samson of the De La Salle University (DLSU) sought to measure how efficient mangroves and seagrass beds are in filtering upland sediment runoff by describing her sediment trapping experiments in El Nido. Dr. Al Licuanan of DLSU was also at the Symposium, and presented some of his own work on coral reef assessment in the Philippines.

PhD student Mags Quibilan, who is doing collaborative research with CCRES, showed some of her dissertation work on spatio-temporal patterns of coral settlement.

For more details, contact: 

Ms Kubi Follosco
CCRES Country Coordinator (Philippines)
c/ UP Marine Science Institute
University of Philippines (Diliman), Quezon City 1101
Tel: +632 922 3921
kubi.follosco@gmail.com