Fields in Toronto

So you know I’m at Toronto studying the environment and its systems, as well as doing a bit of anthropology and economics studies on the side. We did a summer field course before officially starting the school year, and the following will be some posts on the field trips we had and issues we covered.

The course was held at Koffler’s Scientific Reserve at Joker’s Hill, a 348 ha reserve that contains the largest site of old growth forest found in the whole of Oak Ridges Moraine. It is owned by the University of Toronto, and also recognised as both an Earth Science and Life Science Area of Natural Scientific Interest – a designation that acknowledges the exceptional quality of the forest at Joker’s Hill.

In the first week we did projects (small group projects on a topic we choose from a list of given topics, and a large group project analysing a dataset together). The second week however, was full of field trips and discussions. We went to Dufferin Marsh Conservation Area with Mary Asselstine leading the lecture about issues and concerns of the DMCA and troubles she has had to deal with.

AND WE GOT TO SIT ON A MAGIC SCHOOL BUS!! (:

Just about half and hour’s ride from KSR, DMCA is an area almost completely surrounded by residential and commercial development, the 5 ha plot of marsh/swamp land has had to deal with un-cooperative developers and municipals alongside handling and involving the community in conservation and action.

Something I always brought back from class with Prof Peter Ng and Sivasothi was to ‘choose your battles’ carefully (in conservation class), and now it was reiterated here by Mary. With all the problems that have surfaced and all the problems dealing with these problems, hearing about them continuously from Mary for a few hours would just make you either cry or shake your head in disbelief and frustration. Here’s a short list:

With too many agencies employing regulations on one area with no clear jurisdiction, it takes a long, long time (and many tiring communications) to do one thing. It is inefficient, ineffective, and it does not help the community in both humans and animals/plants.

And then there’s the problem of invasives: on one hand you have the Purple Loose Strife (a wetland invasive from europe), and on the other you have hybrid Cattails that are rampaging all over the wetland, causing problems with water flow and nutrient trapping. but wait, the story’s not over, because you also have the Phragmitis (Reed) from europe taking over wetland edges and growing extra fast.

Sometimes action plans work. Mary spoke about how she would have a dedicated team of volunteers from the Village of Schomberg who would gather every other year to clear out the Purple Loose Strife, and who have the ability to because they are trained (by Mary’s team). Successful storm water management ponds built also successfully treated urban runoff and kept out the geese (by sheer mechanical imagination: ropes built across the pond kept the geese from flying in).

But even with all these successes, there  are things to note: animals that live in habitats that require more than one area (e.g. treefrogs need the forest AND the pond to live and breed in); pests that come with urban development (rats, raccoons, feral cats) prey off smaller animals in the communities that are not used to having them around; how do you get the municipals and township on your side; how do you involve the community, and, is it significant to conserve a 5 ha area – or would it just end up as a biological city? The bottom line is, is it worth it?

Trees are dying because of raised water levels that are a result of so many factors, and solutions are stopped dead in their tracks because of regulations placed by agencies that do not claim to then have jurisdiction over the area – but if you do something against regulation you will get prosecuted – what can be done, really? It’s such a tough fight, and it reminds me of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in Singapore so much.

It was really inspiring to hear of Mary’s fight (continued, fight) to carry on, and I hope people out there somewhere continue as well. You never know who you touch out there, a child in the crowd, that may become the next mayor, political activist, politician, engineer, who may then have the capability of influencing the environment effectively and in a positive way.

It’s a long road ahead, and a hard fight. keep going, activists.

Read Full Post »

Backyard Biology: Field Trip to MMM

Okays, a post that was due a long time ago! Figured you guys wanted some pictorials by now. :D

“Yes, against the better judgement of all the rainy days in this current season (it was february then!), we went to Mandai Mangroves and Mudflats* (MMM). So it rained and it poured cats dogs monkeys and elephants (and for Kim, giraffes too). Still though, we had a fabulous time (: (or at least, I know I did!)

High tide water line can be seen on the propped roots of the Rhizophora, and a solitary seedling amongst the rest of the mangrove trees.

MMM littered. May not look as bad here, but it was really quite a load from where we were looking from. Big trash, small trash, all trash. This is where I’d talk about the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC), which is held annually, and all over the world!

And yes, Singapore has it too! Just do a simple internet search and you should be able to find information on it. Institutions and the public join and gather forces, moving to coastal and mangrove areas to do a clean up and weigh-in on the types and amount of trash collected – e.g. 43 tonnes at XYZ Beach, with 36,453 straws, etc.

Great stuff to do it, a big eye opener and again, awareness that hits people when they go ‘oh my, i didn’t know this much rubbish floated out here!’. Grace and I joined Siva one year and we did it at Pandan Mangroves. The year before that I was at Sungei Buloh. Both very different sites to work at, with different litter and characteristics.

Sometimes, TV sets and refrigerator frames are found as well! Tyres are common too, and more dangerously, hyperdermic needles and rusty nails too. Gunny sacks, PVC piping, all sorts of rubbish you can imagine!

Horseshoe crabs (HSCs) getting caught under fishing nets and lines, being unable to reach food for sustanance and water to keep its book gills moist for breathing, it died! Decomposing smell wafting up. :(

Rescue mission got underway with people snipping off abominable abandoned nets and lines and releasing some still-alive HSCs – yay!

With Malaysia opposite us, wading migratory birds way out in front of us, mud on us, us beside us, and static electricity making our hair stand as we walked around, it was really quite an experience!

Lessons:
1. Always wear booties, coz Wincent didn’t get to wade out
as far as we the booties people could, quite a waste!
2. Wear fitting longs – Anne’s longs were loose and the mud was
constantly sucking it down. Haha. Needless to say, not a nice experience.

Our brave team happily muddied, headed along Sungei Mandai Kechil.

Daniel exploring the river bank at top left, Wincent smiling to himself at top right, Grace mischievously taking a photo of unsuspecting Kim at bottom.

More pictures of what it was like.  Siva’s in the orange cap,
Anne in the black shirt, Holly at bottom right picture.

Lessons:
3. Bring a proper poncho – not a groundsheet. Kim only realised her ‘poncho’
was actually a groundsheet when it started to rain, buggers.
4. Bring a poncho. Daniel didn’t have a poncho so used a garbage bag to cover
himself at first, and when that failed, he used it to cover his bag.

Wasp, Sea Holly, Two Collared Kingfishers, Peanut Worm, Onchs, Sandpiper. Look for the bird! Tip: 2pm direction if centre of photo is centre of clock.

Creatures! :D HSCs, mudcrabs, thundercrabs, all sorts of plants.

Seedling’s been barnacled!

Huge trees keeled over because of ground/mud erosion that’s happening more and more nowadays, what with the increase in wave energy resulting from increased activity along the shoreline, as well as damming of rivers preventing sediment flow into estuaries for deposition. That’s Evelyn delicately walking past the tree.

Photo of desolate-looking, dying mangrove trees at low tide.

(:

Almost the core team of Backyard Biology, we’ll be having another field trip soon! This time to Tanah Merah side, where we’ll be exploring the area for the first time. Oh, and Daniel’s back in Toronto now I believe. Evelyn and I will be visiting him very soon when we leave for environmental biology studies at University of Toronto!”

*Don’t know about MMM? See an earlier post on 19th Feb. (:

Read Full Post »

9th February Changi Beach Walk (MGS)

So we headed off from NUS this time, carrying containers and all sorts of stuff to be used in activities with the MGS girls at Changi Beach. Arriving earlier than expected, we settled down at a small sheltered ‘hut’, and we noticed..

Ladybug! Henrietta, Kok Sheng and I got all excited wanting to snap shots of this tiny cute ladybug that was on the floor behind us. KS then put it on a leaf, attempting to take a more natural-looking shot :D

Slightly more ominously though, was a dead Mynah about two metres away from us. Poor thing already had ants all over it. Robert arrived shortly, bringing with him a moult from a Flower Crab, and two Sea Urchin tests.

Sea Urchins leave behind a calcerous test that is akin to a skeleton that an animal leaves behind as the soft tissue decomposes.

Then the MGS girls arrived for their two hour workshop. Here’s a picture of Robert with his group – the Knobbly Seastars! A quick safety brief and off we went to the intertidal area!

A short introduction to tides led to a discussion on how intertidal creatures live in an environment where ranging temperatures, salinity and moisture all pose a challenge for survival.

The New Moon and the Full Moon are all times to take note of – thats when the tides are the lowest or highest in a month. Here’s more on Spring and Neap tides.

Sea Cucumber, unknown. This little critter was completely buried in the sand, and even without close inspection you can see the many thorn-like structures on its skin! Colour is drab brown to blend in with the sand where it usually lives.

Thorny Sea Cucumber (Colochirus quadrangularis) [Thanks Ron for the ID!] again, this time with its filter-feeding apparatus out for all to see. Looks like fireworks to me. Sea cucumbers are part of a group called Echinoderms, and these include the very popular seastars, sea urchins that people fear (coz of the spines), and sand dollars that most don’t know about.

Echinoderm means ‘spiny-skin’ in Greek, and this prickly nature is what most echinoderms have. Hard spines are clearly visible in sea urchins, smaller, less distinguished ones are present in sand dollars and seastars, and  most sea cucumbers lack hard calcerous spines.

The Striped Hermit Crab (Clibanarius infraspinatus) here is beautifully striped, and quite big too. This one got quite irritated with Robert and gave him a strong nip on the palm. As a hermit crab grows bigger, it also outgrows its shell – because of this, it needs to keep changing shells to accomodate its size. Refrain from picking shells at the beach because you could just be depriving a hermit crab of a home!

I nearly stepped on this Hairy Sea Hare (Bursatella leachii) – but thanks to Hen’s and KS’ shouting I froze in time. Some sea hares have internal shells, most have a pear-like body shape, and they seem to also be seasonal – sometimes you see many of them and sometimes even spotting one is difficult. This sea hare feeds on cyanobacteria and swallows large amounts of sand in the process, much like an earthworm!

Dragonet, (likely Callionymus schaapii). Don’t know anything about this fish, and finding on the web isn’t very conclusive. Anyone know anything about this one? There was some debate on whether it was a flathead or not. Thoughts? [Edit]

According to Ron, that’s likely the species name for this fish, and flatheads generally have a longer head, and dragonets have a shorter one.

Cake Sand Dollar. In the background photograph you can see tracks laid by a Sand Dollar, that is moving constantly through a thin layer of sand, feeding on organic debris as it does so. They are pretty common on our beaches, and quite brittle/fragile too! Do take note of where you step on when you are at the beach.

Spider Crab. Notice the pointed ends of the Spider Crab‘s legs, and how well camouflaged it is with its odd shape, and drab colouring (mostly sediment on its body here). An elusive creature, the Spider Crab is often difficult to spot as it minimises movement to avoid detection by other creatures.

Razor Clams, also known as Bamboo Clams, are able to ‘swim’ and bury into the sand if they’re needed to very fast, despite its elongated appearance that intuitively seems like its hard to burrow or swim efficiently. Siphons at the end of the soft body (the striped part you see here) jet water out, and are also part of an inward/outward flow of water from which they filter feed from.

Mantis Shrimps are not shrimps! They are even less closely related to shrimps than crabs are. Usually growing up to a length of barely 10cm, the largest specimens found could easily reach 30cm! Mantis shrimps got their common names from their strong and powerful front pincers – and so are largely grouped as Spearer or Smasher Mantis Shrimps. Some Smasher mantis shrimps have even been known to be able to smash their way through aquarium tanks that have not been reinforced!

Helmet Snail, (Semicassis bisulcatum). This pretty Gastropod was moving around when Henrietta spotted it – causing quite a frenzy where Ron and KS were jostling around to get a good picture of this unidentified species. As you can see from the border photographs, thats a sequence snapshot of the movement of the snail. (:

The MGS girls were exclaiming when this horseshoe crab was brought into the scene by Robert, who found it nearby. Already dead, there was a slight decomposing smell if you went too close.

This Coastal Horseshoe Crab (Tachypleus gigas) can be identified from its relatives through its triangular shaped tail (in cross section). The other HSC, the Mangrove HSC, has a conical shaped tail. The name HSC is actually a misnomer, as these ‘crabs’ are actually more closely related to spiders than crabs!

HSCs are very fragile creatures – and Robert was demonstrating the way HSCs flip themselves back up if they become overturned. Biotechnologies have recently discovered that the blood of a HSC can detect gram-negative bacteria (e.g. Samonella spp., E. coli, STD-causing bacteria), and because of this HSC numbers have dwindled as pharmaceutical companies who practice unsustainable harvesting of these creatures suck them dry of blood (pun unintended).

Certainly my first time seeing an outdoor workshop with secondary school students – it’s very heartening to see that our younger generations are still open to this kind of education: hands-on and traditional biology, the one that always captures people’s attention, and hearts.

Also keeps reminding me that knowledge really, shows us the extent of our own ignorance. Great trip!

Read Full Post »