marine-themed informational flash animations
The Philippines forms an ocean region that has long been recognized as the world’s center of marine biodiversity. With the Malay archipelago, Papua New Guinea and Australia, the country forms the ‘Coral Triangle,’ so
marine-themed informational flash animations
The Philippines forms an ocean region that has long been recognized as the world’s center of marine biodiversity. With the Malay archipelago, Papua New Guinea and Australia, the country forms the ‘Coral Triangle,’ so-called because of the abundance of its coral reef life. Some 400-500 species in 90 genera of reef-forming corals are believed to exist in this region. Sulu-Sulawesi Sea, a 900,000-square-kilometer marine eco-region that lies at the apex of the Coral Triangle (70% in the Philippines, 20% Indonesia, 10% Malaysia), is home to some 2,500 species of fish.
A 2005 report (Carpenter 2005) suggests that the Philippines is not only part of the center but is, in fact, the epicenter of marine biodiversity, with the richest concentration of marine life on the entire planet.
of the center
Kent Carpenter, Old Dominion University associate professor of biological sciences who headed the study, says, “Scientists have long known that the area in Southeast Asia that includes Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines holds the richest marine biodiversity. I was amazed to discover that the extreme center of this biodiversity is in the Philippines, rather than closer to the equator. However, a geographical information system (GIS) analysis of this extensive database clearly shows this pattern.” (ODU News 2005)
Carpenter and co-author Victor Springer of Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History used a GIS overlay of 2,983 generalized distributions of marine species to examine the pattern of diversity in the Indo-Malay-Philippines Archipelago (IMPA). Their analysis revealed the central Philippines as “the area of highest diversity and endemism.” (Carpenter 2005)
The Philippine center of diversity was found to have the highest species richness for all distributions combined as well as when shore fish distributions were treated separately. (Carpenter 2005)
“Because of its greater area, Indonesia may eventually be shown to have a greater overall marine biodiversity than the Philippines. However, there is a higher concentration of species per unit area in the Philippines than anywhere in Indonesia,” the report says. (Carpenter 2005)
It also notes that of 120 restricted-range endemics included in the study, the Philippines has 38, compared to 19 in Indonesia/Malaysia, 18 in Australia, 18 in New Guinea/Bismark/Louisade, 17 in Coral Sea/New Caledonia/Vanuatu, and one or two in seven other localities. (Carpenter 2005)
In 2004, a survey in Panglao, Bohol observed 1,200 decapod crustaceans or different species of crabs and shrimps; some 6,000 mollusk species, including sea slugs and microshells; and hundreds of other previously unrecorded marine species.
The survey also found fossils of snails extinct in other parts of the world, and numerous species that were photographed alive for the first time.
Another survey was conducted in 2005 under the same project in the deep waters (up to 2,200 meters) of the Bohol-Mindanao-Cebu triangle. It recorded some 1,000 mollusk species, 600 crustacean species, more than 100 echinoderm species, and over 100 fish species, many of them considered rare or very rare, or new to science.
“The amalgamation process created barriers when the larger islands took shape and potentially separated populations and provided conditions for allopatric speciation,” Carpenter and Springer (2005) suggest. “The accretion of the archipelago would also have concentrated diversity, assuming that the different elements of the Philippines developed their own endemic biotas.”
Carpenter’s goal is to understand the natural forces, such as lithospheric plate movements, prevailing currents, and the geography and geology of the area that contributed to the evolution of the biodiversity.
“This discovery poses some very interesting questions about the origins of marine life in our oceans. Perhaps the Philippines hold the key to unraveling mysteries about how marine biodiversity patterns change through space and time,” Carpenter says.
“Biodiversity is of major interest to many people. Many marine organisms have yet to be looked at for pharmacological purposes. Some sharks appear resistant to cancer. It turns out that sharks are becoming endangered because of over-fishing. Some marine organism might hold the cure to cancer, but we are destroying them before we get a chance to study them.” (ODU News 2004)
real threat of extinction
Carpenter and Springer (2005) liken the Philippine seas to the Amazon, as rich in unique life and equally endangered.
“Understanding factors that control patterns of endemism and richness should …help prioritize sites for conservation even when data are sparse, as they are often in the marine environment,” they say. “Solely as an example of peak diversity and endemism, there is ample justification to prioritize the Philippines for conservation. As a probable epicenter of allopatric speciation and island int