TAO Board President receives Outstanding Young Scientist award
Dr. Laura T. David (3rd from right in photo), President of the TAO Board of Directors and associate professor and deputy director for instruction of the Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines, received this year’s Outstanding Young Scientist award in physical oceanography. The award was given out on the 29th Annual Scientific Meeting of the National Academy of Science and Technology. Dr. David is a UP Chemistry graduate who obtained her Ph.D. in marine science-physical oceanography from the University of South Carolina (USC) in the United States. She is the first Filipino woman with a Ph.D in physical oceanography.
Dr. David was featured in the front page of the Philippine Daily Inquirer on July 15, 2007. The full text of the article follows:
First Pinay oceanographer to the rescue
by Angelina G. Goloy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines—At about the time organizers of the worldwide concert “Live Earth” were turning up the heat on climate change awareness, oceanographers monitored a further increase in the sea surface temperature in the Pacific.
The Marine Science Institute (MSI) at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, observed that from June to July, the temperature had risen to 31 degrees Celsius (an increase of .5 degree).
This is higher than the average temperature over the last 20 years, said Dr. Laura T. David, MSI associate professor and deputy director for instructions. The two-decade average is 29 degrees Celsius.
David sat down for an interview on Tuesday, the eve of the 29th Annual Scientific Meeting of the National Academy of Science and Technology, during which she received an award as this year’s Outstanding Young Scientist in physical oceanography.
She is a UP chemistry graduate who obtained her Ph.D. in marine science-physical oceanography from the University of South Carolina (USC) in the United States.
She is the first Filipino woman with a Ph.D. in physical oceanography. (The only other one is now in California.)
Public education
Aside from teaching and research, David devotes time to public education. She gives lectures and workshops to local government officials and managers of marine protected areas on the use of remote sensing and geographic information systems.
She also meets with fishers, aquaculture practitioners and coastal dwellers to discuss issues like fishkill, mitigating environmental disasters and improving the quality of coastal water quality.
On a wider scale, she gives workshops on data-gathering techniques around Asia and South America as a member of the steering committee of the Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone, an international scientific body.
According to David’s resumé, among her ongoing research projects is “looking at how human activities on land and sea affect coastal areas and our vulnerability to global climate change.”
This wife and mother recently returned from the first of a series of research cruises around the country to look into ocean productivity and diversity, through a project funded by the US Office of Naval Research.
2 major concerns
Warm water raises two major concerns in the Philippines—more powerful storms and coral bleaching. The warmer the water, the greater the energy a cyclone gathers from it. Thus, in recent years, typhoon signals have risen as high as No. 4.
“A sea surface temperature of 27 or 28 degrees Celsius is enough to stir up a low-pressure area,” said David, who is also involved in the development of ocean remote sensing in the Philippines as well as UP MSI graduate courses.
An unusually warm sea surface temperature has also been identified as the most stressful condition that causes corals to expel the algae within their tissue that give them their characteristic color, so that they appear bleached white.
This process, called coral bleaching, could lead to the death of corals under prolonged stress. And when corals die, reefs disappear, resulting in massive losses in fishes and other marine life dependent on them.
Scientists have observed that coral bleaching episodes occur when the sea surface temperature rises as little as one degree Celsius over the monthly average during the hottest months of the year.
The MSI is closely monitoring the situation, and preparing for the eventuality that it would have to take “drastic action,” said David.
It is focusing on a vast coral reef area covering up to 50 hectares in Bolinao, Pangasinan, where its research station is located.
Such action could include shielding coral reefs. David said that in Australia, scientists had used tarpaulin to cover coral reefs, and that in some areas, it worked.
Worst episode
Aside from income and resources derived by industries like fishing and tourism, coral reefs also protect coastline communities from severe storm damage, erosion and flooding.
The worst coral bleaching episode occurred in 1998, coming on the heels of the strongest El Niño event recorded thus far.
David said the episode lasted two weeks, and was first observed in the Philippines—in Northwestern Luzon, near the Lingayen Gulf.
The most severely affected was the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, as well as the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania, where up to 90 percent of the coral cover was lost or severely damaged.
Scientists say that sea surface temperatures are expected to continue to increase worldwide.
“The best safeguard against coral bleaching is to curb overfishing,” David said.
Passion
David is passionate about promoting marine science education.
While completing her doctorate, she taught at the USC. Later, she teamed up with two marine biologists and put up a video production outfit called Ocean Observers.
“We produced mostly small clips, which we sold to the National Geographic Channel,” recalled David, who wrote the storyboards, provided underwater lighting, and did postproduction editing.
One clip about sharks was used in the movie “Spy Kids.”
Wife to IT specialist Ramon C. Sampang, and mother to 3-year-old Logan Isabel, David hopes to try something similar here, this time on TV.
Like her grandfather, biochemist Dr. Augusto Tenmatay, who studied in Boston and returned to the Philippines to apply the knowledge he had acquired, David left the production outfit after two years and came back to her homeland in 1998.
Many have asked her why. Her constant reply: “When you’ve seen how beautiful our country is, you would.”
She may as well add, “Let’s hope we can preserve that beauty before it’s too late.”
