Our Seas, Our Future

Since 29 May 2006, a mud volcano in Sidoarjo district of East Java, Indonesia, has been emitting hot mud at an average rate of more than 40,000 m3/day. The volcano is so called Lusi, which means “lu” for lumpur (mud) and “si” for Sidoarjo. From the geological standpoint, the mud is estimated to continue spewing for years. Mud volcanoes are geological phenomena due to overpressurized subsurface mud layers. Although it links to the gas exploration activities by Lapindo Brantas, the cause of the eruption has not yet been established. The nature of mud is still questioned since the reports show that the mud is not homogenous (UNEP/OCHA, 2006).

A more pressing concern after the eruption is how the mud should be discharged. Disposal scenario of dumping into the sea through Porong River is unpopular. It could lead to the water flow blockage and affect the coastal productivity. Some ecological engineers recommend the establishment of artificial mud island as the area of the waste material disposal. An artificial wetland system is proposed to receive and make use of deep earth eruptions and incorporate them into productive system (Awad, 2006, McLachan-Karr, 2006).  

Mangroves are the natural habitats of the Porong River Area. They have evolved in filtering waste and stabilizing sediments that run from the Porong areas. Because of their unique characteristics, mangroves are already organized to receive the mud within the artificial wetland system. Mangroves are expected to deal with rapid and large changes in environmental inputs. In related to this assumption, a preliminary assessment has been done in 2006-2007 to prove whether mangrove could survive within this mud. This study aims to investigate the probability of dominant mangrove species in Porong, which is Avicennia, to survive in “Lusi”.

Result

Within 10 days, Avicennia sp has shown fine growth compare to Rhizophora sp. There are no significant difference between the growth of mangrove with the media of simply mud and mudwith fertilizer. Direct and indirect sunlight is also one of the treatments that applied in thesamples. The current result does not show the significant influence of their growth with thosedifferent solar radiations setting. However, further observation is needed to conclude the findings.  

 source : Marine Conservation Team – IMRO

Source : Ocean Remote Sensing Team – IMRO

Information is available in Bahasa : http://mapin.wordpress.com/

The ICRI International Year of the Reef 2008 is a worldwide campaign to raise awareness about the value and importance of coral reefs and threats to their sustainability, and to motivate people to take action to protect them. All individuals, corporations, schools, governments, and organizations are welcome and actively encouraged to participate in IYOR 2008. Further information please see http://www.iyor.org/

This symposium, co-sponsored by GLOBEC, will bring together results from observations, analyses and model simulations at a global scale, and will include discussion of the climate change scenarios and the possibilities for mitigating and protecting the marine environment and living marine resources. Registration and abstract submission are now available from the symposium website:
http://www.pices.int/meetings/international_symposia/2008_symposia/Climate_change/climate_background_3.aspx

Following on from the success of the AMEMR 2005 (Advances in Marine Ecosystem Modelling Research) symposium the second AMEMR symposium is due to be held 23-26 June 2008 in Plymouth, UK.  For further details see the symposium website:
http://www.amemr.info

This conference will be held 4-7 August 2008 in Kiel Germany and will include sessions on: larval ecology linked to physical processes; aquaculture and stock enhancement of early life stages, early life history strategies of fish and cephalopods, larval fish and cephalopod taxonomy, developmental molecular biology and physiology; and databases and tools on early life stages.  For further information see the conference website:
http://www.larvalfishcon.org/

This is interesting topic about resilience :

Ocean ecosystems are increasingly threatened by overfishing,
pollution, habitat loss, climate change and coastal development.
Understanding why some ecosystems resist these shocks, and continue
to deliver benefits such as plentiful fish and pristine beaches, and
how others collapse is the subject of resilience science — a
budding branch of study that combines approaches from both the life
and social sciences.

“Resilience science examines how human and natural forces come
together to affect an ecosystem’s ability to resist, recover or
adapt to disturbances, ” Leslie said. “That knowledge can be directly
applied to conservation policies — policies that can better protect
the oceans.”

Key elements of resilience science include the recognition of the
connections between marine systems and human communities, the
maintenance of diversity in marine ecosystems and economies, and the
importance of monitoring of the dynamic ecological processes, such
as the rate of plankton production in the upper ocean, that create
large-scale ecological patterns.

Conservation policies based on resilience science are showing
promise around the world and across the United States, most notably
in the Chesapeake Bay. Restoration of the Bay is underway –
evidenced by oyster sanctuaries and eelgrass seeding — to restore
lost diversity and increase future resilience.

“Viewing the world through a resilience lens means embracing change
and acknowledging the tight connections between humans and nature,”
Leslie said. “The way forward will require embracing change at many
levels — in societal expectations, in business practices, in
resource management — to adapt to an ever-changing environment.
Resilience science can show the way forward, creating more robust
marine ecosystems and thriving human communities. “

*Heather Leslie, Sharpe Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies
and Biology at Brown University, presented the symposium “Embracing
Change: A New Vision for Management in Coastal Marine Ecosystems”
on Feb. 17, 2008.

Source: Brown University.

The Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) is please to announce that it has been awarded the Nippon Foundation-POGO Centre of Excellence in Observational Oceanography. The Centre will offer a 10-month Programme of study at Bermuda on Observational Oceanography. Tentative Programme dates are from 1 August, 2008 to 31 May, 2009. Travel and living expenses of the trainees will be covered by NF-POGO C of E. Full details available at: http://www.bios. edu/education/ cofe.html

This is the result of our survey on 10-11 September 2007. The appearance of coral reef areas is spotted from the Quick Bird image, which are Takad Sore, Penaum and Takad Gosong (Figure 1). From the Manta Tow surveys, the life form of coral reef in Takad Sore and Penaum were categorized as “damaged to recovery”, which were 25%-75% and 20%-60% respectively. In Takad Gosong its percent cover of life form was categorized “damaged to critical”, which was 5%-25%.

Further coral reef identification (LIT surveys) indicated that coral reef in Penaum had higher life form percentage than Takad Sore. Healthy life form of coral reef in Penaum was found in 3 m and 10 m depth, which were 72.74 % and 52.20 % respectively. Coral reef in Takad Sore, which was categorized as damaged/critically, had healthy life percentage of 15.48 % in 6 m and 3.40 % in 10 m depth. The coverage of death coral, life coral and others varied accordingly within the depth and location. In Penaum, its ratio of death coral, life coral and others was 72:27:1 in 3 m depth and 52:5:43 in 10 m depth. It showed that the condition of coral reef in Penaum was still in good condition. On the other hand, its ratio of death coral, life coral and others in Takad Sore was 15:71:13 in 6 m depth and 3:20:78 in 10 m depth.

However, the benthic life forms found in Penaum was lower than Takad Sore. In contrast with coral reef condition, there were 22 life benthic forms found in Penaum and 27 forms in Takad Sore. High percent cover of benthic life forms in Penaum was dominated by Porites (60%) in 3 m depth and soft coral (40%) in 10 depth, whereas high percent cover of benthic life forms in Takad Sore were dead coral algae (39%) and rubble coral (32%) in 6 m depth and SAND (36%), soft coral (31%) and rubble coral (19%) in 10 m depth.

Coral reef in Pemuteran (courtesy: Candhika, 2007) 

Based on the ecological index values, Takad Sore had low domination level of coral reef (C = 0.2674; 6m and 0.2686; 10m) with a small diversity level (H = 2.4917; 6 m and 2.2024; 10 m) and the uniformity level medium to high (E  = 0.5673; 6 m and 0.6671; 10 m). Similarly, Penaum had a low domination level (C = 0.4039; 3 m and 0.2579; 10 m) with a small diversity level (H = 1.8825; 3 m and 2.3915;10 m) and the uniformity level medium to high (E = 0.5442; 3 m and 0.6671; 10 meter).

Beside coral reef, the survey also examined the existence of reef fish. Through visual census on the BT method, there were a total of 446 individuals from 15 families of reef fish. In Takad Sore = 256 individuals from 15 families of reef fish. The reef fish families encountered during the surveys such as Acanthuridae (Surgeonfishes) and Chaetodontidae (Butterflyfishes), where as the most encountered reef fish families were Caesionidae (Fusiliers) and Pomacentridae (Damselfishes).

Based on the ecological indexes calculation result, Takad Sore had low domination index values of reef fish (C = 0.1768 at the depth of 6 meter and C = 0.4266 at 10 meter depth), average values of diversity index (H = 2.0561 at the depth of 6 meter and H = 1.2091 at 10 meter depth) and average to high evenness index values (E = 0.8274 at the depth of 6 meter and E = 0.6748 at 10 meter depth). The similar results also occurred at Penaum where it had low domination index values (C = 0.3951 at the depth of 3 meter and C = 0.4471 at 10 meter depth), average values of diversity index (H = 1.1359 at the depth of 3 meter and H = 1.2060 at 10 meter depth) and average to high evenness index values (E = 0.5837 at the depth of 3 meter and E = 0.6731 at 10 meter depth).

Based on those data, we proposed the conservation area in Pemuteran as shown Figure 2 below.

source: Marine Conservation Team – IMRO (2007)