Today, I learnt a lot about Mandai mangroves from Rick's talk about his work there.
Rick's talk on "The creation of a whole-mangrove species distribution inventory for a threatened mangrove in Singapore" shared some of his findings from the hard work he and his team put into Mandai mangroves.
Mandai mangroves lies next to the Causeway and although it seems a tiny sliver of land, there's all kinds of amazing mangrove life there.
Rick shared a little about the marvellous mangrove trees that can be found there. Mangroves may appear dull and boring, but they are quite beautiful when we take a closer look.
Rick also shared about the awesome 'Total station' method that he
uses which provides super accurate readings of soil elevation in the
area.
The
measurements allows an accurate representation of the area. In
addition, Rick has measured and mapped 2,000 trees! And yet, this is
only a small part of the area which is estimated to have 8,000 trees.
It was rather disconcerting to learn that we have lost much mangroves in the area (marked in red) in the past decades. But there is a small patch of green where the mangroves have increased. This patch has good growths of
Beccarri's seagrass (
Halophila beccarii) and where lots of
Perepat (
Sonneratia alba) have started to grow. So much more to learn and find out about our mangroves!
As Rick says in the summary of this talk "We believe our study site to be one of the best surveyed mangroves in the world, at with such precision and detail. Information gained from this study will (1) produce very accurate species inventory and community structure data, (2) answer key knowledge gaps, e.g. the role of inundation thresholds in mangrove establishment and long-term ecology, and (3) be used as a baseline data to study current and future threats, e.g. sea-level rise. These crucial baseline data will provide the necessary information to better manage and conserve"
Rick has lots more work to complete and he always welcomes volunteers to help out in this important task. More about
how ordinary people can help on Rick's Mangrove Action Squad blog. Here's
what I did when I joined Rick and Wei Kit on this project. You can also read more about
Rick's project on the blog.
To volunteer with his study fill out this form:
http://tinyurl.com/6sp4yh9. Come join Rick to get a glimpse of Mandai mangroves, learn more about our mangroves and make a difference for them!
More about Mandai mangroves
