25th July 2009, Saturday, 0800-0900

Date of study: 25 July 2009
Weather: Cloudy with drizzle
Time: 0800-0910
Tidal levels: -1.0

25 July was indeed a fulfilling day for our team!The tide was really low at -1.0m so we carried out Enhalus Acorodies monitoring for the first time ever When we arrived, we found that the gate to the beach was locked and we had to climb over the fence to reach the seagrasses <3 Thankfully, we crept along the fence to the ramp and walked down safely. We are glad that no one  squished any Onchiidae in their expedition down the “Onchiidae Slope” (aka the inter-tidal zone where onchiidae can be seen during low tide).

We started measuring Enhalus plots from further out at sea and moving inwards towards the shore. We measured a total of 10 plots of Enhalus in 9 areas spread out randomly around the seagrass bed.  Hua Zhen became very excited upon counting 15  gastropods in the same Enhalus plot. Li Ying went in search of the inrolled leaf margins of the Enhalus as we had previously read about it online. This was a “putting-theory-into-practice” experience and we even took photos to show you! Please look at our photo collection at the end of this post for pictures we took from our trip but before that…..After finishing our Enhalus monitoring, we went in search of our quadrats which we use to track the growth of Thalassia. We were quite worried that they might had been removed by people or washed away by the waves.  We were estatic when we found them although they were covered in slimy mud. One of our tent pegs had been washed away too! -Two dollars floats away- We definitely can’t wait for another day with low tides so we can replace that tent peg and check the growth of our Thalassia plots. In about 2 months, the Thalassia cover in our plots had already grown by 30-40%.

There were also many other organisms we saw during this trip:

The dying crab which had 2 legs missing, presumely from a fight or attack

The red algae which was slimy to the touch.  Mr Lim told us it was covered in something similar to our mucus.

The remarkable inrolled leaf margins of the Enhalus! This makes it hard to tear the leaves.

Here are the rubbish we picked up along the beach and inside the sea. It weighed 11kg in total (shocking) and we appeal to beach-goers to dispose of your rubbish properly as they will endanger the lives of sea organisms.

Here’s a picture of our quadrat.

Thank you for supporting our project! Stay tuned for our updates from our future trips

Hua Zhen, Li Ying
and Regina who was regretfully unable to join us during our visit.

25thJuly09 7.45am – 9.10am

 

Went for our second seagrass monitoring on 25th July, Saturday. We started early in the morning at 7.45am, and had to climb over the fence since the gate to the beach was not open. The tide receded to a -0.1, so we could see a lot of things we couldn’t see very clearly last time, such as the patches of thalassia which stretched unusually far out.

 low tide!

Monitoring went much faster this time, as we split the work among us, and so got the work done in a jiffy. On top of that, the grey skies forewarned the storm, so we were motivated to work faster. Fortunately, there was only a slight drizzle which we managed to work through. We finished ahead of time, giving us an opportunity to explore the rest of the beach, and observe more of its interesting flora and fauna.

Also, we collected 9kg of rubbish, even though the beach was relatively clean. We classified the rubbish according to plastics, glass, metal and others. Here are some pictures:

 

 

a newly formed coral (which will grow around 2cm per year!) So we shouldn’t break off coral because to form a large coral it takes a very long time.

 

 

the anemone which sucks onto the finger! (it’s actually stinging us, but we have thick skin (: )

 

 

 

brown algae with air sacs (sargassum) which help them stay upright when the tide is higher.

 

 

 

 

the relatively clean beach

 

 

us and the rubbish we collected!

 

till next time!

Grace, Zenia and Yifeng

Team 2 Reporting….

On 29^th May, we headed down to Labrador Park to start our first official monitoring session on seagrasses. After a demonstration by Mr Lim on how to read off data from the quadrats, we proceeded to do it ourselves. Pinning down our quadrats wasn’t all that easy as the rocks beneath prevented the pegs from penetrating deep down. We had initially planned to thread a fishing line through each seagrass but unfortunately the needle holes on the needles we had were too small for the fishing line to pass through. Hence, we used these sharp tool with needle-like tips to poke holes just above the leaf sheath of each Thalassia leaf. After completing two quadrats, we went to help the other team with the last few of their 33 random quadrats. The beach was relatively clean so we did not pick trash on that day.

 Three days later, on the 31^th May, we went back down to collect the Thalassia in our quadrats in order to monitor their growth. As the tide was a little too high, we could not really see the seagrasses as clearly as on our previous visit. Fortunately, we could locate our quadrats and proceeded to collect the seagrass.

 The trips to Labrador Park were then followed by the weighing of the biomass of the Thalassia we collected. In the lab, we measured the length, average width, weight, as well as, growth of the baked seagrasses. This time, the seagrasses were a little over baked as the temperature of the oven was set too high. Hence, we had to handle the seagrasses with extreme care as they were rather brittle.

This trip has taught us to be well prepared for any emergencies like how the fishing line couldn’t thread through the needle, as well as to prepare all equipment well beforehand so as to ensure that we can carry out seagrass monitoring and collection well. We look forward to our next exciting trip to Labrador Park on 25 July, where we may also try out monitoring Enhalus.

 Here are some photos taken:

A plot of Enhalus found surprisingly near the beach

Our quadrats

Until then….

Hua Zhen
Regina
Li Ying

First trip down

We are the two new teams that will be working with seagrasses for the next 1.5 years.
First team: Grace Cheong, Jin Yifeng and Zenia Quek.
Second team: Goh Hua Zhen, Regina Lau and Tan Li Ying.

The main objectives of our project, working together, are to maintain Labrador Park so as to clear the marine waste washed on shore, and to map out the distribution of the different species of seagrass. Our mapping is aimed at aiding future research and recreational activities to be done at Labrador Park.
Our first team will be focusing on the distribution of seagrass Thalassia hemprichii, Enhalus acoroides and Halophila ovalis. Our second team will be monitoring the growth of seagrass, so as to find out the factors that affect growth there!

2 Fridays ago, 8 May 2009, we took our first trip down to Labrador Park. We were introduced to various marine organisms that can be seen on the rocks in the intertidal zone, such as Onchidiidae, small crabs and Polychaete. We learnt the right and safe way of opening rocks so as to prevent attacks from marine creatures which reside underneath. Our teacher-mentor, Mr Lim, taught us how to identify algae and the various species of seagrasses. We had the chance to try out our new booties! (: He also taught us about the ecological relationships between the corals and seagrasses, and showed us the calcium carbonate skeleton of a dead coral.

After being debriefed, we went down to the beach once again! We picked up 3kg(:O) of rubbish which consisted of styrofoam, plastic bottles and other non-biodegradable materials, just as a start to the maintenance of the beach. :D:D Unfortunately, we also saw a great extent of pollution. D:D:D:
It was a fulfilling trip to Labrador Park and we are certainly very excited about our next trip!

Here are the photos of the 2 organisms mentioned above:

The Onchidiidae

 

The Polychaete worm

 Do look out for more photos in the coming posts! (:

last trip down to labrador park

On the 10^th of February 2009, we concluded our last formal trip down to Labrador Park for our data collection. The weather that day was great, windy and not very hot (since it was about 5.30pm). Although we had to wait for the tide to recede yet again, we did not really mind it this time and spent our time taking photos of the beach and of our plots.

high tide!

low tide!

that’s us standing at the location of our 3 plots! The 3 plots are about 2 metres away from each other.

As we could not find 2 dates with low tides that are 4 days apart, we could not conduct another fishing line growth experiment on our Thalassia hemprichii. Instead, we could only monitor our 3 plots of seagrass, as well as collect the seawater sample again. This time, we discovered that many of the Thalassia had turned brown!

at first, we thought it was a very bad case of epiphyte, but Mr. Lim attributed this find to the extremely dry weather recently, so the Thalassia have been “sunburned”.

As we only had 3 plots to monitor, whereas the other group had 33, we were done much earlier. We spent the rest of our time searching for new organisms and:

yes! picking litter!

And much of the time was also spent on popping the air sacs of the brown seaweed (Sargassum), which was our new obsession!

when you press on the air sac, there’s a pop sound!

this time, instead of the usual blue anemone, we saw green anemone!

and the coin seaweed:

and the ribbon algae:

and happy us:

this is our last trip down to labrador park, and we’ll miss that wonderful place very much.
also, thank you for everyone who helped us with this project, it has been very meaningful.

Danielle, Jolyn, Xinyi

First 09 Monitoring

Hello! It has been almost 3 months since we last went down to Labrador Park for our seagrass monitoring and data collection. After not being on the beach and seeing all the sea grasses for such a long time, we felt almost glad to be back there on the 9th of January despite the drizzle. However, due to the slight inaccuracy of the tide table, the tide was simply too high for us to do any monitoring at that specific time. Nevertheless, we stationed ourselves and waited for more than an hour. Unfortunately, not only did the tide not recede, in grew even higher. Left with no choice, we had to go home): (However, one positive takeaway from the trip was doing some coastal clean up! While we waited for the tide to recede, we went around the beach trying to pick up litter! The beach was really quite dirty!)

Our next attempt down to the park was on 12th January. The tide table that we used proved to be really inaccurate as the tide was quite high at our targeted time again. However after a long wait, we were able to conduct our monitoring although the tide was a little too high for our liking (it got our clothes wet D: )

Remember that we were supposed to measure the growth rate of our selected seagrass, Thalassia Hemprichii? We would select a 25cm by 25cm plot of Thalassia Hemprichii, then poke holes at the bottom of the seagrass, thread a piece of fishing line through the hole and leave the seagrass to grow. Then we would come back 3-4 days later, cut away the seagrass and measure its growth from the new base of the grass to the hole with fishing string. Our initial plan was to start another plot to measure its growth. However, since the tide was too high on the 9th and we could not do anything, we could no longer start any plot for January as the only 2 days where the tide is low at an appropriate time was the 9th and 12th.

Therefore, we took the soil and water sample from our plots as well as monitor the seagrass coverage of our other 3 plots! The soil and water sample will be studied further as a factor of the seagrass growth. (We will keep you guys updated!)

Yep, so that concludes our first successful trip down to Labrador Park in 2009. We are very sorry we do not have photos this time round due to the unfortunate and unexpected illness of our photographer thus we do not have a camera on that day D: we will take more photos during our next trip, which is hopefully in mid February.

Danielle, Jolyn and Xinyi

halophila ovalis

Common name: Spoon seagrass/ Paddle weed
Halophila Ovalis

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliphyta
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Alismatales
Family: Hydrocharitaceae
Genus: Halophila
Species: Ovalis

Description: Halophila Ovalis is a small herbaceous plant. The leaves are ovate in outline, appearing on stems that emerge from rhizome beneath the sand. The roots get up to 800 mm long and are covered in fine root hairs. It is also connected by a series of interconnecting rhizomes as in grasses.

Habitat: This plant occurs in sea beds and other saltwater environments. It is also frequently seen in reefs, estuaries, islands, inter-tidal areas, on soft sand or mud substrates. It can dominate a sand bank or other patches of the sea bed and is thus often found in meadows.

ulva lactuca

Ulva Lactuca

Kingdom: Protista
Phylum: Chlorophyta
Class: Ulvophyceae
Order: Ulvales
Family: Ulvaceae
Genus: Ulva
Species: Lactuca

Description: Ulva lactuca is a thin flat green alga growing from a discoid holdfast. The margin is somewhat ruffled and often torn. It may reach 18cm or more in length, though generally much less, and up to 30 cm across. The membrane is two cells thick, soft, translucent and grows attached, without a stipe, to rock by a small disc-shaped holdfast. Green to dark green in color this species in the Chlorophyta is formed of two layers of cells irregularly arranged, as seen in cross section. The chloroplast is cup-shaped with 1 to 3 pyrenoids. There are other species of Ulva which are similar and not always easy to differentiate.

Habitat: This sea lettuce is found in all levels of the intertidal. However, in more northerly latitudes and brackish habitats, it is found in the shallow sub littoral. In very sheltered conditions, the plants that have become detached from the substrate can continue to grow, forming extensive floating communities. Ulva lactuca can be found on suitable substrata in estuaries. It is particularly prolific in areas where nutrients are abundant.

3rd August Seagrass Monitoring

Hello all!

 

On 3^rd August, early in the morning when the sun was hardly up, we trudged all the way down to Labrador park for our second data collection. Throughout the journey to get there, we were all very afraid that the tide would be too high for us to do anything as the tide was 0m at 6.26am and we could only start work at 7.30am. Luckily for us, the tide was still low and all went well.

 

Basically, what we did on that day was to cut off all the Thalassia Hemprichii growing in our selected patch. (The grass which we poked holes the last time we went down). Cutting the grass may sound easy, but it was not quite so. We had to crouch all the way down and grasp each piece of grass and cut it from its base. Even a tiny distance away from the base would make our measurement inaccurate. The repeated bending down, feeling for the base, cutting and straightening our back to place the grass on sheets of newspaper was no easy job and our legs soon got cramp. Danielle, who was carrying the newspaper (to put the sea grass) with her hands outstretched also had to maintain her balance on the uneven ground. A slip would render all the tediously hand-picked sea grasses to be washed away. However, even though it was hard work, we felt very accomplished after removing all the sea grasses. (There were 169 pieces!)

Then, we did quadrat sampling for our patch and the senior’s patch. This trip down was about a month after our previous trip, however, there is no significant difference between the data collected last month and this month for the senior’s patch. Maybe we ought to give the grasses a little more time.

 

Originally, we wanted to find another patch of sea grass to carry out another succession (for more accurate results). However, the tide was coming in really quickly and we had no choice but to run back to the beach. Guess we will have to do it the next time we go down!

 Every time we go down to Labrador park, we would always see sea creatures that we have never seen before and this trip down was no exception. We saw a female flower crab! Mr Lim said it was a female crab because its abdomen was circular ( If we did not remember wrongly!) We also saw a water spider! We never knew spiders could live in water! Also, we saw the Velcro crab once again, at where we found it one month ago!

 

 

 

The Flower Crab

The Marine Spider

 

 

Although this trip down took away some (or rather, much) of our sleep time, I guess it is rather worthwhile and fruitful!

Sorry for the late entry!

Danielle, Jolyn, Xinyi

030308 Seagrass Monitoring!

Hello friends! Haha on 3 August, while half the world was asleep, we were out at Labrador Park doing our second data collection at 7am in the morning! :O

It seems that we have become much better and much more efficient in data collection, considering how much less time we took to complete 33 quadrats as compared to the very first time we tried  

As for the interesting organisms this time round, there was this female swimming crab! Too bad Mr Lim didn’t elaborate on how he knew it was a female crab and not a male! We shall ask him next time (: What’s scary is how once it is on the sand, it camouflages itself so well that we wonder how many millions of crabs we could have stepped on whenever we walk around on the seagrass patch!

The crab lifted up the plastic container with much ease and her grip on the algae was very strong too! She may be a female, but is very mighty indeed! It was very interesting. But the problem is, it was hard to detach the crab as pulling it might break its pincers. Hence, the only way is when it sees that there is an escape route. Mr Lim then released it and we watched it scurry away and started digging a hole to burrow into the sand once again.

Mr Lim caught it while he was with the other group at the area they were doing their transect. Sadly, it seems that all the interesting organisms seem to be found near where they are working at but not so much in the middle of the seagrass meadow where we are most of the time! We probably aren’t observant enough. Oh well, at least Mr Lim always shares what he and the other group finds (:

 

We also caught a marine spider. It actually cannot swim but it lives in the waters because it can move very fast and glides across the surface as though it is walking on water. In fact, it is no different from an ordinary spider, it just lives in a different part of the world.

We also met our little friend again! the velcro crab! It was on the same exact spot and its camouflage amazed us all over again! Mr Lim said it was the same old crab we saw the other time. Hmm, we wonder how he knows?

 

We actually saw a really huge pincer which was orange! It looked like a cooked crab! However, we didn’t bother to discover further and couldn’t find it again after that.

 

We are really sorry for the late entry!

 

Cheryl Jiemin Joyce!