Abstract:
The South Harbor-Manila Bay serves as a habitat to a wide array of marine species including biofouling species like barnacles, mussels, gastropods, and polychaetes. However, anthropogenic activities and various industries in the bay continue to contribute to the degradation of Manila Bay’s water quality, which greatly affects the marine species present. The aim of this study was to determine the species composition of the marine macrofouling community of South Harbor-Manila Bay and estimate biodiversity through diversity indices. A comparison was made to a previous survey conducted by Vallejo et al. (2012) to monitor the species present in the area. The protocol and fouler collector utilized in the study was adapted from the North Pacific Marine Sciences Organization (PICES) method for regular monitoring of non-indigenous species of ports. Fouler collectors were deployed at five random sampling points around the South Harbor- Manila Ocean Park for sixty days (from November 27, 2013 to January 26, 2014) to identify the species that compose the macrofouling community of the proximity. Fifteen macrofouling species were identified, belonging to the classes Polychaeta, Maxillopoda, Anthozoa, Bivalvia, Gastropoda, Turbellaria and Gymnolaemata. The dominant species present was found to be Balanus amphitrite, with a relative abundance of 56.82%, followed by polycheate worms, with a relative abundance of 34.38%. The values obtained for Shannon-Weiner index, Simpson’s index, and Margalef’s index were 0.57, 0.61 and 3.51, respectively, all showed low diversity, which is attributed to the high disturbance in the area. Eight out of fifteen species collected were consistent with previous observations by Vallejo et al (2012). Further comparison with the previous survey showed an increase in relative abundance of reported non-indigenous bivalve (Vallejo et al. 2012), Mytilopsis sallei.
