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1The Graduate School, University of Santo Tomas, España Boulevard, Manila 1015, Philippines
2Aquatic Biology Laboratory 1, Research Center for the Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Santo Tomas, España Boulevard, Manila 1015, Philippines
3Department of Biological Sciences, University of Santo Tomas, España Boulevard, Manila 1015, Philippines
4Senior High School, University of Santo Tomas, España Boulevard, Manila 1015, Philippines
5Institute of Biology, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, 1101, Philippines
6Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, 457-4 Motoyama, Kamigamo, Kyoto, 603-8047, Japan
*[email protected]
Mollusks play an integral role in aquatic ecosystems and studies on their species composition and diversity can help unravel currently existing environmental conditions as influenced by the aquatic environment itself or its surrounding watershed. In this study, the species richness and diversity of mollusks in the area of Talim Island, laguna de Bay was determined by gathering samples from six littoral sites. The results showed that there were 6 species (Corbicula fluminea, Cipangopaludina chinenses, Melanoides cf. tuberculata, Melanoides cf. turriculus, Ploita scabra, Tarebia granifera) of mollusks present in the littoral zones of Laguna de Bay. Further analyses of gathered data indicated that the highest diversity was recorded from Pinagdilawan, Binangonan (H'=1.20) while the lowest was in Malanggam, Cardona (H'=0.67). The southern part of the island showed more diversity than the northern region. M. turriculus was the most abundant (0.28%). Depth was negatively correlated with the diversity while other physico-chemical parameters did not play a factor in recorded diversity values for the different sites. On the other hand, the proportion of the pebbles in the sediment for the different collection sites appeared to play a factor in the abundance of mollusks. This research showed that there is a low biodiversity of mollusks in the littoral zones of Talim Island which may be due to siltation, abundance of water hyacinths, and excessive number of fish pens resulting to poor environmental conditions.
