LBYBI24 NO1A ACTIVITY #1

1st Term AY 2021-2022

Instructor: Giannina Feliciano

Name: Kobee D. Bacolod

1. Make a Google Earth map of the 30 reef stations and attach the image below. (1 point)

Figure 1. Philippine Map with thirty reefs indicated.

LBYBI24 NO1A ACTIVITY #1
1st Term AY 2021-2022
Instructor: Giannina Feliciano

2. How far away (in km) is the northernmost reef site from the southernmost reef site? (1 point)
The northernmost reef site (Reef 53) is approximately 1,159.28 km away from the
southernmost reef site (Reef 21).
3. Identify the year when construction and land reclamation was done in Mischief Reef.
Attach screengrabs of pre-reclamation and post-reclamation. (1 point)
The start of land reclamation in Mischief Reef was done during May of year 2016.

Figure 2. Mischief Reed before land reclamation. Figure 3. Mischief Reef after land reclamation.

4. How far away (in km) is Mischief Reef from mainland Palawan? (1 point)
The Mischief reef is approximately 243 km away from mainland Palawan where the point of
reference is Rizal, Palawan.

Figure 4. Mischief Reef distance from mainland Palawan

LBYBI24 NO1A ACTIVITY #1
1st Term AY 2021-2022
Instructor: Giannina Feliciano
5. Make a QGIS map of the 30 reef stations and attach the image below. Label the reef points.
Make sure to add a scale bar and north direction arrow. (1 point)

Figure 5. QGIS Map of the Philippines with labeled reefs.

6. Create separate layers of points categorized according to color based on HCCCAT and
TAUrichCAT. Compare the two maps. Write about any patterns (or lack of a pattern) you observe
between hard coral cover category (HCCCAT) and coral generic richness category
(TAUrichCAT). Do most of the reefs have the same HCCCAT and TAUrichCAT categories?
Attach photos of the maps below. (3 points)
Note that higher HCC category means there is more coral in the reef, and higher coral generic
richness/diversity category means that the reef has more coral genera (is more diverse).
LBYBI24 NO1A ACTIVITY #1
1st Term AY 2021-2022
Instructor: Giannina Feliciano
Based on the generated map, most of the reefs showed a distinctive pattern in which categories
for both Hard Coral Cover (HCCCAT) and Coral Generic Richness (TAUrichCAT) provide a direct
relationship. Such that those reefs with HCC category A to B have a diversity category A.
However, some of these reefs specifically REEF 21 and REEF 31 does not follow this pattern and
may be indicated as the outlier in the group.

Figure 6. QGIS Map of the Philippines; HCCAT

Figure 7. QGIS Map of the Philippines, TAUrichCAT

LBYBI24 NO1A ACTIVITY #1
1st Term AY 2021-2022
Instructor: Giannina Feliciano

7. Create separate layers of points categorized according to size based on HCC and MA.
Compare the two maps. Write about any patterns (or lack of a pattern) you observe between hard
coral cover (HCC) and macroalgae cover (MA). Does there appear to be a positive relationship,
negative relationship, or no relationship between HCC and MA cover? Attach photos of the maps
below. (3 points)
Use the same color scheme for both. Set Precision to zero, specify six classes of Equal Count
(Quantile), size range from 5 to 25 pixels.
In the generated map, the Luzon area, some of these reefs showed a negative relationship for
the two categories. However, for the rest of the island groups namely Visayas and Mindanao,
there was no specific pattern seen. Thus overall, there was no distinctive pattern observed for the
Hard Coral Cover (HCC) and Macroalgae Cover (MA) among the reefs in the country.

Figure 8. QGIS Map of the Philippines, HCC

LBYBI24 NO1A ACTIVITY #1
1st Term AY 2021-2022
Instructor: Giannina Feliciano

Figure 9. QGIS Map of the Philippines, MA

LBYBI24 NO1A ACTIVITY #1
1st Term AY 2021-2022
Instructor: Giannina Feliciano
8. Is there a significant linear relationship between hard coral cover (HCC) and coral generic
richness (TAUrich) among the reefs? Is it positive, negative, or no relationship? Substantiate
your answer by attaching the linear regression plot. Report p value, R2 value, and slope. (2
points)
There is a significant weak positive linear relationship between hard coral cover (HCC) and
coral generic richness (TAUrich) with a p value of 0.00026627. The HCC and TAUrich provided
an R2 value of 0.38306 and a slope of 0.32569.

Figure 10. Linear Regression Plot and Statistics for TAUrich and HCC
LBYBI24 NO1A ACTIVITY #1
1st Term AY 2021-2022
Instructor: Giannina Feliciano

9. Which reefs are grouped together in terms of hard coral composition? Mark your cluster
analysis dendrogram with the groupings you have discovered and attach the image below. Go
back to your QGIS maps and examine if the reefs in the same grouping have geographic patterns.
(e.g., Do similar reefs belong to the same bioregion? Are similar reefs all on the west or east side
of the Philippines?) Report these patterns. (3 points)

Figure 11. Cluster Analysis Dendrogram for the thirty reefs

In figure 11 above, I distinguished three clusters in the dendrogram generated. Upon reviewing
the clusters and comparing them with how they are distributed in figures 8 and 9, cluster A
provided a distinct high HCC category which is followed by cluster C with a slightly high to average
HCC category and lastly Cluster B with presence of reefs having the lowest HCC category. Cluster
B provided a geographical pattern in which they are mostly situated in the Eastern part of the
Philippines. Cluster A also provided same insight which most are placed in the northern part.
However, Reef 40 is the outlier since it is situated in the southern part which is in Mindanao.
Cluster C also provided a pattern of geographical distribution wherein they are situated mostly in
the central area of the Philippines.