Mr. John Claude Renan B. Salluta, M.Sc., a research assistant of the UST Taal PEER Program, won the Best Oral Presentation (Graduate Category) with his paper entitled “Macroinvertebrate assemblages and functional traits in ashfall-impacted littoral zones of Lake Taal after the Taal Volcano eruption in January 2020”. Salluta joined Thomasian participants in presenting various researches on Philippine freshwater micro- and macroinvertebrates, the feeding ecology of the endemic Sardinella tawilis of Lake Taal and methane dynamics in tropical lakes during the 3rd Philippine Symposium on Freshwater Biodiversity and Ecosystem (PSFBE) from November 9 to 11, 2022 at the Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City, Philippines.
Saluta’s research was part of the NRCP-funded Taal Post-eruption Ecological Research (PEER) Program under Asst. Prof. Jonathan Carlo A. Briones, Ph.D. of the Department of Biological Sciences of the College of Science and the Research Center for the Natural and Applied Sciences, in collaboration with Prof. Francis S. Magbanua of the University of the Philippines – Diliman.
The Philippine Society for Freshwater Science (PSFS) organized the 3rd PSFBE together with this year’s host – the Ateneo de Manila University which co-presented the 3rd iteration of the PSFBE together with BIO-PHIL, the Ateneo Institute of Sustainability, Asean Universities Network-Ecological Education and Culture (AUN-EEC), International Society of Limnology (through the Working Group on Asian Tropical Inland Waters) and the Southeast Asian Limnology Network (SEALNet).
The University of Santo Tomas, through the College of Science also served as a co-organizer of this event together with the University of the Philippines (Diliman and Los Banos), the Laguna Lake Development Authority, the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute and the Philippine National Museum. Apart from the fact that UST played a significant role in the establishment of this event when it hosted the first Philippine Symposium on Freshwater Biodiversity and Ecosystems last June 7-10, 2016, the current set of officers of the Philippine Society for Freshwater Science include Thomasians such as Prof. Rey Donne S. Papa, Ph.D. (Vice President; UST), Asst. Prof. Jonathan Carlo A. Briones, Ph.D. (Liaison Officer; UST), Asst. Prof. Milette Mendoza-Pascual, Ph.D. (PRO; ADMU) and Ms. Jhaydee Ann Pascual, M.Sc. (Treasurer; National Museum).
