Richard A. Mac Kenzie and Dan Donato of USDA Forest Service in Hawaii have been working on the mangrove forests of the Pacific Region in the last three years. PICRC has invited them to help the Center set up a monitoring project for the mangroves in Palau.
According to Mac Kenzie, they want to create a baseline data set so they can track changes in mangroves in Micronesia with regard to climate change.
Mangroves in Palau and Micronesia are a lot smaller scale than in the Philippines or the Amazon, said Mac Kenzie. They can use Palau as a model system which they can apply to larger systems.
“In general there’s been a lot of work done on trees, but not enough work done below grounds like mud, there’s not much work done on crabs, and there’s virtually no work done on fish in the mangroves,” Mac Kenzie said in an interview. He added that most of the work on mangrove monitoring has been done in the Philippines, Austrailia, and in the Caribbean, but nothing has been done in Micronesia.
What people in Palau need to know is that mangroves are very important ecosystems.
“They’re important in terms of providing a whole array of ecosystem services,” Donato, explained. “The mangroves are important in reducing climate change.”
“If you remove the mangroves, you will see a decline in fish. Fish needs these mangroves. If you remove the mangroves you’ll see sediments smothering the corals,” Mac Kenzie said.
According to Lukes Isechal, PICRC Researcher, there has been a lot of mangrove clearing happening in Palau.
“Some people cut mangroves and fill them to build houses,” Isechal said in an interview. “That hasn’t happened much in Babeldaob, but we hope it doesn’t happen to the rest of the mangroves north of Airai. But a lot of it has happened here in Koror.”
During their first week, Mac Kenzie’s team set up nets to see what fish are going into the mangroves.
During the second and third week, the team looked at the trees, measuring the structure of the forest, the species composition, what trees are growing, and how big are they are.
Another big thing about mangroves, Mac Kenzie said, is that they fix carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. “Mangroves are very important carbon storage.”
This is just the first phase of the project; the team will come back in February next year to check on the results and continue with the monitoring.
“We’re trying to work with local people and provide them with information,” Mac Kenzie added. “And now we have Lukes’ team so that they can continue with the monitoring while we’re gone.”
Another reason why the team wanted to do the mangrove monitoring in the country is to be able to provide information to Palau about the status of its mangroves. “So we can say whether this forest is doing really well, and which part might be preserved or which area maybe prioritized for restoration,” Mac Kenzie explained.
According to Donato, compared to other areas they worked on, Palau’s mangroves are in relatively good shape.
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