Rose Anne Cuaderno

FBS 36 B-1L

1. What is the subject matter? Who are the authors?

 The subject matter is about the Plant Diversity and Carbon Storage of a Rhizopora Stand
in Verde Passage, San Juan, Batangas, Philippines. The authors are Mr. Dixon Gevana
and Mr. Nelson Pampolina who are both from the University of the Philippines Los
Banos.

2. Give the rationale behind this article.

 Due to various environmental problems we are facing like climate change and habitat
losses, it is indeed important to determine the factors accountable for these (e.g. natural
or human influences). Moreover, environmentalist have a big role of making or enabling
an environment as a system that provides ecological services like the biodiversity and
carbon sequestration as mentioned in the article. Thus, the authors find potentiality in a
Mangrove ecosystem as it has the capability to sequester and store carbon dioxide that
will be helpful in addressing the climate change or other related environmental problems.

3. What are the specific objectives of the works by the authors?

 The specific objectives of the article is to assess the diversity and carbon density of the
mangrove stands located in Verde Passage, San Juan Batangas. Along with this is to use
the data gathered as a bases for a more effective forest management interventions.

4. How did authors attain their objective of their work? Enumerate the ecological steps or
procedures undertaken.

 The authors attain their objectives through the conduct of the following:
 Background check of the study site
 Reconnaissance survey
 Identification of the dominant species and other species existing in a given area
 Use of nested plot sampling method to and gather data useful for assessment
 Use of Shannon-Weiner index to calculate for species diversity
 Use of allometric equations to compute for biomass
 Determination of bulk density of the sediments

5. Were the objectives attain in the result presented? What are the significant contributions of
their works in the forest ecology and the environment?

 Yes, through the ecological steps conducted, the objectives were attained in in the result
presented. The authors were able to present scientifically the results and assessments.
  It is very significant and will create a huge step in mitigating the environmental problems
knowing that we have many mangrove ecosystems that will serve as carbon sequester and
at the same time, habitat for various group of faunas. Moreover, it is one way of creating
environmental awareness for people.

6. Any research gaps or recommendations presented by authors? Specify their next works.

 I think the article are very informative and lack nothing in terms of the data presented as
well as in the discussion. It is systematically presented through the help of scientific
methods or ecological techniques/processes used. I just notice that the emails of the
authors given in the article are not the academic email or whatsoever they call it. (for
instance in UP system, we have the up.edu.ph emails)

7. Provide comments on the references use in support of the paper.

 I think there is no problem in the citations and references presented. It follows the
standard of citation of sources.