Bab 4: Bidang BIOLOGI
64. Marine Biology, Ecology & Conservation of The Wakatobi Marine
Tujuan Penelitian : Meneliti ketahanan terumbu karang, khususnya dalam kaitannya dengan peningkatan ancaman dari eksploitasi taanpa memperhatikan aspek sustainability yang juga dikombinasikan dengan perubahan iklim
Bidang Penelitain : Biologi Kelautan Daerah Penelitian : Sultra (TN Wakatobi)
Mitra Kerja : Puslitbang Laut, Pesisir, dan Pulau-pulau Kecil Universitas Hasanuddin (Prof. Dr. Ir. Jamaluddin Jompa, M.Sc.)
Abstract
During the period 2012 and 2013 the Coral Reef research Unit, in collaboration with the Research and Development Centre for Marine, Coast and Small Islands, University of Hasanuddin undertook a multi-themed research project entitled “Marine Biology, Ecology & Conservation of the Wakatobi Marine National Park, South East Sulawesi, Indonesia”. The research project was very successful in addressing its key aims, and resulted in numerous scientiic publications, the publication of a book and several capacity building. Herein we describe our continued research programme that would capitalise on the indings of the last but focus more on the key issues impacting marine systems on the Wakatobi both at the present time and in to the future.
The research programme for 2014 is a continuation of the research carried out in 2013 and proposes to address ive key research themes and to use these research topics to address the key issues of Climate Change, Environmental Governance and the need to Capacity Build within the Wakatobi and wider region. These cross-cutting issues will be addressed from the context of 1) Coral Reef Form and Function 2) Coral Reef Resilience 3) Life in the Extremes 4) Coral Reef Resources and 5) Coral Reef Management which represent the research themes. The thematic approach will provide a strong research framework in which do address the key issues, whilst also providing an adaptive potential through evolving and objective led research tasks.
Within the theme coral reef form and function, the key topics of system biodiversity, functionality, redundancy, dynamics and connectivity, will be addressed using a number of study based approaches. This research will require an ecosystem approach and although the proposed identiies coral reefs as the key subject area, the majority of the research activities will include associated habitats such as sea grass and mangrove forests. Coral reef resilience is a key topic of our time, particularly due to the increasing threat of non-sustainable exploitation combined with accelerated climate change. Resilience will be examined through investigations in to the tolerance of reef organism to stress events (natural and anthropogenic induced), recruitment potential of the key taxa and the recovery potential, at a systems level, post disturbance. Within the proposed research we
also intend to investigate habitats that are characterised by extreme environmental conditions, certainly at the very edge of the environmental envelop within which coral and associated species can survive. Our previous research demonstrated that many species exist at these extremes through speciic adaptations to their physiology and life history traits, and we intend to fully investigate these characteristics within the context of climate change to determine whether or not these systems house species that may be better equipped to deal with mass environmental change of either an acute (such as El Niño and La Nina events) or chronic (climate change) nature. It is generally through that such species and may represent the future of tropical systems. The fundamental aim of this and the previous research is to understand how reef systems react to environmental stress and how best to manage these systems against increasing stress. Much of this stress is anthropogenically induced and thus our proposed includes research questions that span the disciplines including the social and economic sciences. Consequently we have proposed a research theme that examines reef based resources and how such resources are likely to change as the system becomes more stressed. Most importantly we aim to identify how best to manage these resources going in to the uncertain future. Research and exchange in knowledge between researchers and conservationists are also starting to recognise that there are many alternatives to traditional methods of resource extraction and that it is possible to utilise a diverse range of reef based resources in a sustainable manner (eg carbon credit systems). This activity will therefore examine current resource extraction practises but also look to diversify sustainable and non- damaging exploitative as well as non-exploitative activities .The activities do not intend to establish new activities within the park rather than research there likely beneits both in terms of the ecology of the system but also in terms of livelihood support. This research theme goes hand in hand with the inal theme of coral reef management and we intend to address this topic from both a natural and social science standpoint. This inal theme will integrate across all other research activities. Most importantly however the research aims to examine the possible management options for the future as resources becoming increasingly degraded through exploitation and habitat degradation.
The proposed represents a series of activities that will help to maintain and sustain the Wakatobi Marine Park as a centre of international quality research, research that is aimed at advancing global knowledge of coral reefs but also, and most importantly, research that informs present and future management. It is most
important that such research activities as outlined herein, incorporate elements of capacity building to ensure that lessons learnt from the research are passed on to future researchers and decision makers. Therefore this document outlines our proposed approach to increase capacity building activities through the provision of taught, experience and learning based opportunities.
64.1 Prof. Wayne A. Bennett Jr
Warga Negara : Amerika Serikat Jabatan : Professor
Institusi : University of West Florida No. SIP : 213/SIP/FRP/SM/VI/2013
64.2 Dr. David John Smith
Warga Negara : Inggris
Jabatan : Senior Lecturer
Institusi : Dept. of Biological Sciences, University of Essex No. SIP : 248/SIP/FRP/SM/VII/2013