Experimental Marine Ecology Laboratory

URBAN MARINE ECOLOGY RESEARCH

SEAWALL ECOLOGY & ECOLOGICAL ENGINEERING

EMEL’s Seawall Eco-Engineering team works on enhancing the biodiversity on coastal defences using ecological engineering principles. Coastal urban development and intensifying sea level rise are leading to a global proliferation of coastal defences, such as seawalls. These structures are designed primarily to meet civil engineering goals and do not function in the same way as the natural habitats they replace; therefore ecosystems services are lost. The Seawall Eco-Engineering team develops strategies for enhancing biodiversity and re-establishing ecosystem services on heavily modified shorelines through a series of subprojects that include:

Biodiversity enhancement tiles
Seaweed cultivation
Coral propagation
Baseline monitoring

URBAN CORAL REEFS

Coral reefs are among the most biologically diverse and productive marine ecosystems on the planet, yet they are rapidly degrading from multiple local stressors and global climate change. The prevailing paradigm for coral reefs dictates that chronic disturbances should shift coral-dominated reefs to macroalgae dominated reefs, however reefs in Singapore continue to support diverse and resilient coral communities. To better understand how Singapore coral reefs persist, we need to better understand how key stressors (macroalgae, sediment) interact with corals, and how this effects the biology and ecology of these coral reef ecosystems. This will also require a better understanding of key ecological processes–such as those performed by different functional groups of marine herbivores–that both weaken the resilience of the degraded state and strength the coral-dominated state.

The main research objects of this project, include:

Assess the direct and indirect coral-macroalgal interactions to determine the potential effects of secondary chemistry and microbial communities from macroalgae on corals
Determine the impacts of sediment characteristics on coral reproduction, settlement, growth and survivorship
Understanding the functional importance of herbivorous fishes in degraded coral reef systems, their habitat use patterns and feeding preferences

MARINE POLLUTION

Plastic usage is ubiquitous around the world due to the material benefits of high durability, flexibility, and affordability. However, these features that make it so convenient in society are also what make it difficult to manage them as a waste product. Since the mass-production of plastics in the 1950s, plastic pollution in the environment has become a critical issue that threatens marine ecosystems on a global scale. Coastal habitats, such as seagrass beds and mangroves found around Singapore, are known to trap marine debris at a higher rate than other unvegetated areas. This increased trapping effect compounded with plastic degradation can lead to these habitats acting as ‘sinks’ for microplastics. Due to their size and abundance, microplastics are difficult to remove from the environment and are easily consumed by other organisms. Plastic has been associated with several harmful health consequences for the marine fauna such as suffocation, entanglement and physiological stress when consumed.

In Singapore, the impact of plastic pollution to our local marine ecosystems remains understudied and our team aims to fulfil the following objectives:

Understanding the distribution of plastics among and within marine habitats such as coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass meadows
Assessing the microplastic load among habitat-forming species and determining the transference of microplastics up the food chain
Assessing the impact of microplastics on marine organisms of various functional groups and the overall impact on the marine ecosystem

SEA URCHIN ECOLOGY

Sea urchins are key benthic grazers on coral reefs, capable of shaping the community composition through herbivory, corallivory, and bioerosion. Due to these processes, sea urchins can influence both the carbonate budget and reef resilience, depending on their population density. Singapore harbours some of the most degraded yet resilient reefs in the region, but the ecology of the most dominant sea urchin—Diadema setosum—is not well understood. They exhibit a patchy distribution across Singapore’s Southern Islands, increasing in abundance with distance from the mainland, but the driver for this trend is unclear. They have been identified as an important bioeroder and macroalgae grazer on reefs where they are abundant, however, this finding was based on their daytime numbers, whereas D. setosum is nocturnal. The lack of knowledge concerning their diet on local reefs and variability of their bioerosion rate in response to environmental changes further restricts the appraisal of their ecological roles. In addition, how their populations are affected by the impacts of urbanisation are also not well understood.

To gain a better understanding of D. setosum population ecology in Singapore, this project has the following objectives:

Assess the factors influencing D. setosum local distribution patterns;
Assess their population connectivity and genetic diversity;
Characterise their local diet profile and assess the diet spatial variation;
Quantify the pollutant load in their population; and
Investigate their local bioerosion potential

FPrevious research areas: Industrial Applications, Fungiid Coral Reproduction, Seagrass Ecology

Google Sites

Report abuse