Registration is now open for LSM4263 – Field Studies in Biodiversity (deadline 07 Jun 2013)

Photo from drowgirl@Flickr

Message from Life Sciences Undergraduate Program Committee, 22 April 2013:

“Dear students,

Registration is now open for LSM4263 – Field Studies in Biodiversity, Special Term IV.

Registration ends 07 June 2013.

This 4MC module will be conducted in Semester IV, AY2012-13. Though a detailed timetable will be available later, class begins Tuesday 25 June and ends Fri 26 July 2013.

To qualify, students must be:

continuing into their Honours year in AY2013/14

concentrating in Environmental Biology and

possess a CAP of 3.5 or above

expected to cover part of the module cost (not amounting more than SGD400).

The field trip is scheduled to be on Thurs 11 July to Wed 17 July 2013.

Class size is limited to 30 students and preference given to students with Biodiversity (LSM1103) and Ecology (LSM2251).

To register, complete the form at 

http://tinyurl.com/LSM4263-June2013-Registration

The list of successful applicants will be announced after the release of final examination results.

Best wishes,
Life Sciences Undergraduate Program Committee
http://www.lifesciences.nus.edu.sg“

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Chloe Tan’s three months in the Philippines begins on Earth Day!

Chloe Tan did her honours thesis on the “Diversity and distribution of small mammals across forested and urban areas in Singapore” and graduated determined to work in conservation directly.

She is one of several students who wish to contribute to regional efforts to protect and conserve. Since a job is not immediately available, getting involved as a volunteer is an excellent way to learn the ropes and be at the right place when an opportunity presents itself.

Chloe has been looking since she graduated last semester and thanks to Ng Bee Choo, wrote me recently with some wonderful news:

“Hi Siva,

I’ll be a volunteer on the Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Programme (PBCP) under the Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Foundation Inc. (PBCFI).

For this three month stint (22 Apr to 22 Jul), I’ll be in the field helping out with biodiversity surveys, working in breeding and rescue centers in Negros and Panay, and possibly assisting with threatened species reintroduction projects on Negros, Panay and Cebu Islands.

Negros, Panay and Cebu, together with Masbate, make up the West Visayas – a region of PBCFI considers a conservation priority. The long-term goal of the PBCP is to establish a continuously developing network of Local Conservation Areas (LCAs) in the country.

For the first week in the Philippines, I’ll be helping [Ng] Bee Choo at the 6th International Hornbill Conference in Manila. During which I will meet the PBCP field personnel and firm up my itinerary, then tag along as they return to the field sites.

Thanks Siva!”

Happy Earth Day Chloe! Thanks for helping to make the world a better place!

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Registration is now open for LSM4263 – Field Studies in Biodiversity (deadline 30 May 2012)

Message from Life Sciences Undergraduate Program Committee, 5 March 2012:

“Dear students,

Registration is now open for LSM4263 – Field Studies in Biodiversity, Special Term IV.

Registration ends 30 May 2012.

This 4MC module will be conducted in Semester IV, AY2011-12. Though a detailed timetable will be available later, class begins Mon 18 June and ends Fri 20 July, 2012.

To qualify, students must be:
- continuing into their Honours year in AY2012/13;
- concentrating in Environmental Biology or Specializing in Biology and;
- possess a CAP of 3.5 or above;
- expected to cover part of the module cost (not amounting more than SGD400).

The field trip is tentatively scheduled on Tue 3 July 2012.

Class size is limited to 30 students and preference given to students with Biodiversity (LSM1103) and Ecology (LSM2251).

To register, complete the form at http://www.tinyurl.com/lsm4263-2012

The list of successful applicants will be announced after the release of final examination results.

Best wishes,
Life Sciences Undergraduate Program Committee
http://www.lifesciences.nus.edu.sg”

Photo from drowgirl@Flickr

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Hons student Ouyang Xiuling is an NUS SPARKZ 2012 finalist!

Sparkz is “an annual talent show that provides a platform for all NUS students to showcase their talents”. This year, the line up of 12 finalists includes biodiversity honours student Ouyang Xiuling. When she’s not out in the forest dealing with her experiments, she has been singing!

On 28 Jan 2012, they battle it out at the main event at the NUS Shaw Foundation Alumni House! It’s a sold-out event, but there should be news on their facebook page.

Congratulations Xiuling! This took lots of courage; all the best for the finale and no stage fright! *fingers crossed* Remember, just look at the audience and think of your specimens!

Click the link to find out more

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Red crab spiders prey on dipteran larvae in slender pitchers – Trina’s honours research published in the Journal of Tropical Ecology

It is known that the crab spiders forage in tropical pitcher plant cups for insect larvae. However, no experimental studies had been conducted until Trina Chua (Hons 2009/10) worked on aspects of this ecology for her honours year project, supervised by Matthew Lim.

Through in-situ and ex-situ experiments during her honours year, Trina’s research illustrates the aquatic foraging ability of the terrestrial red crab spider (Misumenops nepenthicola) as well as its ability to alter dipteran larval abundance (including those of mosquitoes) in the slender pitcher plant Nepenthes gracilis.

The results are amongst the first to reveal the influence of a terrestrial phytotelm forager on the abundance of pitcher organisms via direct predation. The yellow crab spider, Thomisus nepenthiphilus, however, did not appear to play such a role.

The paper was published online last week as: Chua, T. J. L. & M. L. M. Lim, 2011. Cross-habitat predation in Nepenthes gracilis: the red crab spider Misumenops nepenthicola influences abundance of pitcher dipteran larvae. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 28(01): 97-104.

Part of what Chua & Lim (2011) did for the field study.

Congratulations to them both! You can find out the details at the abstract page in the Journal of Tropical Ecology

Trina and her honours year project supervisor, Matthew Lim

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LSM4263 Field Studies in Biodiversity in June 2011: Registration open

http://tinyurl.com/lsm4263-2011reg

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Trina Chua says of 1st year, “I was not prepared for such a stressful education in university.”

“Looking back at Year 1″
by Trina Chua,
Honours Class, 2009/10

“When I think of Year 1, I think of stress, stress and more stress. It has not changed much over the past three years but one thing has definitely changed – how I handle the stress.

Unlike many of my university peers, I did not take the conventional route of going to Junior College after my O Levels and then continuing to university. Instead I graduated from polytechnic and optimistically started the first day of school in NUS in August 2006. Optimism slowly faded away during the first lecture! The words in the lecture notes looked like Arabic to me and everything just seemed so new although the lecturer re-iterated during class that ‘all of you should already know this since you’ve studied it in JC’.

I started to panic. Not a day passed without me worrying about the various modules. The only thing that made me feel just slightly better was the fact that I was not alone. My friends in NUS and other universities were as stressed about school work as I was and in one extreme case, a friend quit university! Similar thoughts crept into my mind but I told myself to go on…you’ll get used to it!

My parents started to worry about me when they saw me taking one too many snoozes on the study table and looking weary too often. Basically, I was not prepared for such a stressful education in university.

But before I knew it, there I was, enjoying my Honours year, and grateful for not giving up in the first year. Honestly, it becomes wayyyyyyyy better after you pass the first year mark as you’ll get used to it! First year is the time when you adjust to the new environment and find out which is the best way for you to excel in your studies! Get yourself involved in extra-curricular activities to give yourself a break from work or you will just burn out.

Most importantly, although grades are very important, enjoy your university life!”

Trina Chua rescuing horseshoe crabs @ Mandai Besar mudflat, 07 Sep 2010

Trina did research work with mudskippers in her 3rd year, spiders in her honours year, played squash for NUS and after participating in several mangrove cleanups, became a Site Captain with the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore this year.

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LZB features ex-hons Lynette Loke’s project on artificial substrate in marine environments

Lynette Loke, 2009/10 honours student with Peter Todd in Marine Biology Lab and now a Research Assistant appears in Lianhe Zaobao on 1st August 2010. The article apparently talks about her work on creating artificial substrates for enhancing biodiversity on Singapore’s seawalls.

Click for larger image

Lynette and her mini-construction site from Oct 2009

A translated abstract would certainly be welcome! If you can do it, please email me at sivasothi@gmail.com

See also: “Designing innovative coastal protection using ecosystem-based approaches,” by Peter Todd. Hantu Blog, 24 Nov 2009.

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Note of thanks and special highlights from 2009/2010 civet work

Over the past year, I have been conducting a study of the common palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) as part of my honours thesis. I am very grateful for your help in supporting and responding to the civet awareness survey – thank you very much!

Let me take this opportunity to share with you some interesting highlights from the project:

Only one common civet today
Since the 19th century, nine species of civets have been recorded from Singapore, however, only the common palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) is common in Singapore today and is even present in some urban neighbourhoods.

A very special hotspot
Siglap/Opera Estate is a special area in Singapore and was identified as a hotspot for the common palm civets. It is here that we conducted visual transects, camera trapping, civet faeces analysis and spatial analysis modeling.

Activity and diet
We found that urban civets in Siglap were unusually active in the day (compared to forest civets elsewhere). Urban civets ate a wide variety of animals (including rats and squirrels) and fruits (mangoes, bananas and Rain tree (Samanea saman) seed pods).

Relocate but not fearful
The online/mail-back survey results revealed that 70% of respondent would choose to relocate civets if they were found in their homes, however, a majority (92%) did not deem civets to be harmful.

Research and education efforts continue
The research still continues and we (my thesis supervisor N. Sivasothi, myself and future honours students) will further examine the diet of the civet in urban and forest environments. We will also continue to collect civet sighting records through the public feedback form at: http://mammal.sivasothi.com/. Talks and exhibitions will be conducted to help educate people about Singapore’s last urban native carnivore, the Common Palm Civet.

Thank you for helping us learn more about the urban civets. We hope to find ways to allow humans and civets to co-exist peacefully and celebrate the very special continued existence of the Common Palm Civet in Singapore.

I hope you will enjoy the pictures of Mr Kinky-tail and one of the baby civets we encountered during the survey!

Xu Weiting

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Joanne & Aisyah on “Investigations into mangrove tree-climbing crab biology: Gastric mills and Larval periodicity”

Communicating research findings to managers and educators – A talk for staff and volunteers of Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve

“Investigations into mangrove tree-climbing crab biology: Gastric mills and Larval periodicity”

By Siti Aisyah Bte Jamal & Joanne Khew
Systematics & Ecology Lab
Department of Biological Sciences, NUS

Saturday 29th May 2010:
11.15am – 12.15pm (with Q & A)
Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve Theatrete

About the talk
Crab digestion is aided by the appearance of hard structures in their stomach which are called gastric mills. Bearing an uncanny resemblance to the molar tooth row of mammalian herbivores, Aisyah investigates the diversity of the morphology of gastric mills in tree-climbing crabs and evaluates the conformation of phylogeny compared to diet.

Although most mangrove crabs bear large numbers of eggs which are released as larvae into estuarine waters, little is know about the plankton. Joanne’s investigation sheds light into the morphology of tree-climbing crab larvae, sheds light into their periodicity and abundance and discusses the implications as well as a mysterious disappearance event.

About the speakers
Aisyah and Joanne completed their honours year at NUS in May 2010 and are currently awaiting their final results. In their final year, they embarked on research projects into aspects of the biology of tree-climbing crabs under the supervision of Ng Ngan Kee and N. Sivasothi. After a year of mud, tides and dissection, they are no longer strangers to crabs or the mangrove!

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