The research on the different watersheds in Palau is part of PICRC’s Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) program. After the study was finalized, they submitted it to the Journal of Marine Biology in June for peer review. This month, PICRC was informed that its paper was accepted for publication.
PICRC’s other research which were published in the Journal of Marine Biology include studies on Airai Bay and on the reef’s recovery from the 1998 bleaching event.
PICRC Head Researcher Yimnang Golbuu, Eric Wolanski of Australian Center for Tropical Freshwater Research, James Cook University; Peter Harrison of School of Environmental Science and Management, Southern Cross University; Robert H. Richmond of Kewalo Marine Laboratory, University of Hawaii; Steven Victor from The Nature Conservancy; and Katharina E. Fabricius of Australian Institute of Marine Science were the authors of the research.
The journal will come out in December this year.
Part of the group’s study was to look at the different watersheds in Palau, how much sediments are coming into the rivers, how far do they move and how long do they stay in the area.
The study basically assessed the impacts of “differing levels of land development in four watersheds in Palau on river sediment yield.” They found that development on land contribute to the amount of sedimentation. Palau’s watersheds and estuaries are small, and they were generally not as effective as bigger estuaries in trapping sediments and thus at sheltering the reefs.
“Greater efforts are needed to control and mitigate land activities that contribute to the increase in sediment yield,” Golbuu explained in an interview. “Such community-based efforts have already started in different watersheds in Palau.”
PICRC’s Research Department said, “What makes us different from other organizations in Palau is that some other environmental groups are just focused on doing the research and not publish them. What we do is we have our research validated and we publish them in Journals.”
