Goal

The Aquatic Ecology Laboratory at IESM is envisioned to become a national resource and training center for researches dealing with the conservation of ecosystems in the coastal marine and freshwater environment and their responses to natural and human-induced stresses. As water bodies are ultimate repository of spoils from ever-increasing human development projects (e.g., agriculture, forestry, extractive industries, land utilization, energy, urbanization, etc.), heavy losses on the functions and services of aquatic ecosystems usually just go unnoticed. Particularly in the Philippine setting over the past century, the degradation of our streams, lakes, rivers, and coastal marine habitats had been steeply sloping, yet, received apparently inadequate scientific and conservation attention. The extent and integrity of various systems continue to suffer against the impacts of development, and even against the supposedly habitat enhancement projects impinging on less-appreciated aquatic systems (e.g., mangrove planting and coral restoration at the cost of seagrass meadows and intertidal flats).

Research Interest

Mangroves

Aquatic Ecology Laboratory geographic database of sites in the Philippines where field data on mangroves and/or seagrasses had been collected. Map credits: Ms. Betty May Villamayor.