Embedded Files
Learners’ Outcomes for the trip
Learners’ Outcomes for the trip
Explore the interaction of living things with both the biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) factors in the ecosystem
• importance of various physical factors like air, water, temperature, light, minerals and acidity/alkalinity, to the life of the organisms
• how adaptive traits (structural or behavioural) and changes in environmental conditions can affect the survival of organisms
• examples of ecological interrelationships: predator-prey, mutualism and parasitism
• how energy flows through food chains and food webs (example of a food chain)
• how nutrients trapped in living organisms are recycled within the environment, through the actions of decomposers
Station A: Natural Heritage & Water Issue
Station A: Natural Heritage & Water Issue
Loss of tropical Primary rainforest due to development
Damming of Kallang river to build reservoirs for growing population
Importance of central catchment reserve not just for water but for conservation of natural heritage
Importance of various physical factors like air, water, temperature, light, minerals and acidity/alkalinity, to the life of the organisms in the reservoir – algae bloom
Activity A1: Where are We?
Activity A1: Where are We?
Mark on the map Lower Peirce Reservoir (present location) and SCGS.
Trace the river that connects the reservoir to the sea on the South.
Name the river source and the river mouth.
Circle and label the Central Catchment Reserve, Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and Singapore Botanic garden
History
History
Peirce Reservoir, originally named the Kalang River Reservoir, is Singapore's second reservoir. It was impounded across the lower reaches of the Kalang River in 1910. Following the development of Peirce Reservoir, the forest surrounding the reservoir was protected as a water catchment reserve.
Much of this forest along the northern shore of what is now known as Upper Peirce used to be thriving gambier and pepper plantations in the late 19th century.
In 1922, Kalang River Reservoir was renamed Peirce Reservoir in commendation of the services of Mr Robert Peirce, who was the municipal engineer of Singapore from 1901-1916. In 1975, a major water supply project to develop new water resources was undertaken to support Singapore's rapid housing and industrialisation programmes. A dam was constructed at the upper reaches of the Peirce Reservoir, forming the Upper Peirce and Lower Peirce reservoirs.
Catchment areas in Singapore
Catchment areas in Singapore
River flow from places of higher elevation to places of lower elevation as gravity pulls water downwards. The river source marks the place where arrive flows into another water body. Kallang river starts from Lower Peirce Reservoir and flows into the sea through Marina Channel at Marina Barrage. Hence Lower Peirce Reservoir is the river source while Marina Channel is the river mouth. However, there is another dam at Marina Channel that we is used as a reservoir.
Activity A2: Indicate the location of the dam in Lower Peirce and Eunoia JC.
Activity A2: Indicate the location of the dam in Lower Peirce and Eunoia JC.
Activity A3: Changing landscape/ use in Lower Peirce
Activity A3: Changing landscape/ use in Lower Peirce
Station B: Human Impact
Station B: Human Impact
• Fishing
• Animal release
• Invasive species
• Land constraint - golf course & reservoir solar panels
• Advocacy of NGO – saving Lower Peirce by NSS & public
Activity B1: Assessment of human activities in Lower Peirce
Activity B1: Assessment of human activities in Lower Peirce
List some human activities they have observed in Lower Peirce either from direct observation or inferred through signboards/ facilities in Lower Peirce. List the benefits, consequences and impact in the table in your worksheet
Activity B2: Search for alternative energy source to meet high energy demand in Singapore
Activity B2: Search for alternative energy source to meet high energy demand in Singapore
It was reported in ST Aug 15, 2021 that PUB is planning to build a large-scale floating solar farm in Lower Seletar Reservoir. The work will be completed in 2023. Read the article linked in the Google site to understand the different perspectives and also the nature guide’s perspective.
Even though the solar farm is not in Lower Peirce, it is in a reservoir north of this. Look at the reservoir and imagine floating solar farms on the reservoir.
1. How would they affect your experience visiting reservoir park?
2. What are some questions and thought you have on this issue?
3. Describe the impact on the water quality of the reservoir
4. Which wildlife may be impacted as shown in the video?
Singapore aims to increase our solar capacity by six-fold to at least two Gigawatt-peak by 2030. That means solar energy is estimated to account for 3% of our energy demand. Tengeh Reservoir is one of the reservoirs where the construction of a floating solar system has commenced.
Spanning an area of over 32 hectares, which is the size of around 45 football fields, the solar system at Tengeh Reservoir will be one of the world's largest floating solar systems. The energy generated from the solar farm is expected to power about 16,000 four-room HDB flats and will offset seven per cent of PUB's annual energy needs.
Other than Tengeh Reservoir, the national water agency PUB is also in the process of implementing solar systems at Bedok and Lower Seletar reservoirs. Kranji and Upper Peirce reservoirs are potential sites as well.
Interactive: How Singapore built one of the world's biggest floating solar farms
https://mothership.sg/2021/02/singapore-floating-solar-system-reservoirs-impacts/
Activity B3: Advocacy Case Study
Activity B3: Advocacy Case Study
Look across to see the golf course and compare the difference in the physical factors (temperature, humidity, light etc.) from the forested areas.
Circle the area in Lower Peirce Reservoir Park that we will be visiting today.
Compare it with the size of the present Island Golf Course and the proposed 123.8 ha Golf course in early 1990. This will give you a perspective of how large it is.
This is an interesting article written by a young journalist that was born after the 1992 when the proposed golf course at Lower Peirce created a public outcry. Nature Society Singapore crafted a petition that gathered around 17,000 signatures, a feat at that time without the help of social media. Every signature was collected in person.
Before There Was Dover Forest, There Was The Lower Peirce Golf Course Saga of 1992 by Sophie Chew
"According to Richard Corlett, a scholar of East Asian ecology, around 90% of Singapore was covered in primary forest when the British arrived in the early 1800s. Gambier and pepper plantations had decimated most of this by the end of the century. By the 1990s, all that was left after further clearance from World War II, development, and other urbanisation was around 200 hectares, or 1% of the original.
Meanwhile, mature secondary forest like the kind at Lower Peirce—woodland which has regenerated for at least 70 to 80 years after being cleared—came up to around 1000 hectares. At around 120 hectares, the area for the proposed golf course amounted to more than 10% of this. Moreover, the land on which it sat was legally protected, having been gazetted as a nature reserve under the National Parks Act of 1990."
"The PUB-commissioned EIA had been completed in May 1992. Although its full contents were not made public, the report found that the landscape would not be unduly damaged if the course layout were changed. In response, the PUB amended its proposal to a 27-hole course, rather than 36. Meanwhile, the NSS had been working on its own EIA for several months."
The NSS EIA ended with this. "The golf course would be a blot on Singapore’s image as a civilised nation and responsible world citizen,” “CLEARANCE OF THIS FOREST MEANS THAT A PROMISE TO THE PEOPLE OF SINGAPORE, AND TO THE WORLD COMMUNITY, HAS BEEN BROKEN.”
Station C: Secondary Forest
Station C: Secondary Forest
• how adaptive traits (structural or behavioural) and changes in environmental conditions can affect the survival of organisms
• How plants in tropical rainforests are adapted to their environment
• How lizards/ snakes change their behaviour as the external temp changes
• examples of ecological interrelationships: predator-prey, mutualism and parasitism
• how energy flows through food chains and food webs (example of a food chain)
• how nutrients trapped in living organisms are recycled within the environment, through the actions of decomposers
The Lower Peirce Trail today is a 900m boardwalk that takes you through mature secondary forest. This forest forms part of the Central Catchment Nature Reserve and covers an area of about 2,000 hectares. Many of the trees you see around you are over a hundred years old. These trees were once cleared for the cultivation of rubber in the 1930s. Natural regeneration over the years has seen some of the original forest species recolonising, but it would take hundreds of years for the primary forest to return again.
The Lower Peirce forest is home to more than 840 flowering plants, 100 ferns and 250 animal species. Most flora found will be mainly secondary forest species. This is hardly surprising given the history of development of in the forest. In fact, rubber trees (Hevea brasiliensis) are still very common along the boardwalk.
Activity C1: Characteristics of a secondary forest
List 3 characteristics of a Secondary rainforest
Activity C2: Ecological Relationships
Give examples of 3 ecological relationships seen in Lower Peirce
Activity C3: Invasive Alien Species
What are invasive alien species? What are their impacts to our ecosystem?
Below are some videos that help you to understand some of the concepts.
Wasps inside figs - Mtualism
WHy Do More species live near the Equator?
Invasive Species in Asia - esp Apple snails
Common Invasive Species in Malaysia - esp Red-earred Slider
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