Status of macroflora inside and outside marine sanctuaries of Apid, Mahaba and Digyo Islands, Inopacan leyte, Western Philippines
Paper Details
Status of macroflora inside and outside marine sanctuaries of Apid, Mahaba and Digyo Islands, Inopacan leyte, Western Philippines
Abstract
The study was conducted to determine the species composition, diversity, distribution and abundance of seaweeds and seagrass sinside and outside marine sanctuaries of Apid, Mahaba and Digyo Islands in Leyte, Philippines. Quantitatively, the data were collected using the transect-quadrat method. Three 50-100 m transects were laid perpendicular to the shoreline in each of the sampling sites. A total of 58 species of macroflora were recorded, of which51 species were seaweeds and 7 species were seagrasses. Seaweeds were dominated by chlorophytes (green algae) and rhodophytes (red algae) with 20 and 19 species, respectively. Macroflora inside marine sanctuaries were less diverse than outside marine sanctuaries based on Shannon diversity index. Generally, results also had shown that the status (abundance) of seagrass-seaweed inside the marine sanctuaries were in poor condition with a mean cover of 6.8% while outside marine sanctuaries had fair condition with a mean cover of 14.7%. The findings of the study concluded that the species diversity (seaweeds; P=0.02 and seagrass; P=0.001) and abundance (P=0.04) of macroflora between marine sanctuaries differed significantly. However, further t-test results revealed that there were no significant difference observed of its status when compared outside the marine sanctuaries. The poor status was attributed to the reef structure and substrate types of the sampling sites. The structure of the reefs from relatively wider and shallow reefs provide colonization of seaweeds and seagrasses compared to narrow reefs due to steep bottom topography. Substrate types vary from sandy, coral rubbles to coralline rocks providing habitat for diverse macroflora.
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Eliza Dadole Espinosa, Filipina Baroy Sotto, Annielyn Deocampo Tampus, Paciencia Po Milan, 2018. Status of macroflora inside and outside marine sanctuaries of Apid, Mahaba and Digyo Islands, Inopacan leyte, Western Philippines. Int. J. Biosci., 12(4), 255-266.
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