NEO CHAI CHIN Today Online 13 Jun 14;
SINGAPORE — Parts of Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, an important stopover for migratory birds, are sinking and this could be due to the Causeway and the Kranji reservoir limiting the amount of sediments deposited at the reserve. However, some of the nature reserve’s mudflats have increased in size, preliminary findings collected since 2011 by a National University of Singapore geography don showed.
While more data is needed over a longer period of time, changes in surface elevation at Sungei Buloh could bring about a change in the mangrove composition and perhaps a loss in mangroves, said Assistant Professor Dan Friess at the Symposium on Intertidal Conservation in Southeast Asia yesterday.
The National Parks Board, which oversees the reserve, declined to provide specific measurements found so far. However, the reserve’s deputy director, Ms Sharon Chan, said it already takes into consideration the rise in sea levels — parts of the reserve consist of ponds where water levels can be managed — to expose mud areas for the birds to feed.
Singapore is one of 22 countries including Russia, China and Australia that lie along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, an annual migration path for 50 million birds from more than 200 species that spans 10,000km.
Experts at the symposium noted numerous threats such as land reclamation to flyway habitats, and the collapse in populations of some migrant shorebirds. The red knot’s numbers in Moreton Bay in Australia, for instance, have declined by 9 per cent annually for 20 years — a “collapse of colossal proportions”, said Dr Richard Fuller of the University of Queensland.
However, the efforts of one country to conserve birds are not sufficient. “You have to make sure the birds are conserved all the way throughout the flyway and at the critical bottlenecks,” said Mr Spike Millington, chief executive of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership.
Dr Fuller’s research found that migratory bird species more reliant on the Yellow Sea region in East Asia, which has undergone extensive coastal development, were the ones declining more quickly. To conserve shorebird species, authorities and scientists could identify and protect the most important sites, and identify which areas would cause the least loss in biodiversity if developed, he said.
Associate Professor Lye Lin Heng of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law at the National University of Singapore said the Republic lacks laws to protect its shores and marine ecosystems. Effective management of wetlands requires the countries collaborate as migratory species do not respect geographic or political boundaries, she added.
Some have called for the preservation of intertidal areas to protect against storm surges and the impact of climate change, but Assistant Professor Adam Switzer of Nanyang Technological University’s Division of Earth Sciences cautioned against the idea that mangroves protect coastal communities from big storm surges, as they provide little or no defence against storm surges and tsunamis more than 3m high.
Ups and downs at Sungei Buloh
Feng Zengkun The Straits Times AsiaOne 16 Jun 14;
Parts of the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve could be sinking or rising, according to the preliminary findings of a study started in 2011.
Eight monitoring stations had been set up on the reserve's mangroves and mudflats, and land at all eight points had both sunk and risen over the last 21/2 years, said Dr Dan Friess from the National University of Singapore (NUS) Department of Geography.
He noted that the situation is dynamic, and more data is needed over a longer period of time to discern trends, but land sinking could affect the composition of mangroves in South-east Asia and possibly lead to their loss in the long run.
Dr Friess explained that land elevation changes are due to a complex array of factors, including tides and depositing and eroding sediment.
"We don't know enough now to be able to say anything conclusively, but Sungei Buloh is leading the region in even having such a study in the first place to figure out how to manage such changes," he said.
Dr Friess, who studies mangroves and coastal management, was speaking at the Symposium on Intertidal Conservation in South-east Asia on Thursday.
The two-day event held at the reserve in north-east Singapore ended yesterday.
One key issue was the loss of tidal wetlands and how that has harmed migratory birds which rely on them as stopovers.
The National Parks Board (NParks), which oversees the reserve, declined to give specific measurements of the study so far, but the reserve's deputy director Sharon Chan said it maintains mud ponds where birds can feed.
Singapore is among the 22 countries along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, which some 50 million birds use each year.
The 10,000km flyway extends from Arctic Russia and North America to the southern limits of Australia and New Zealand. It encompasses all of South-east Asia and Sungei Buloh is an important stopover.
Dr Richard Fuller from the University of Queensland, Australia, was among several experts who said protecting the birds would require international cooperation. "We need to identify and protect the really important sites, work out where best to allow coastal development, manage catchments and create new tidal flats," he said.
The symposium was organised by NParks, NUS, the Nature Society, Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law and conservation group BirdLife International.
