Article Discussion

The following is a personal review of the article, “The effects of urbanisation on coastal habitats and the potential for ecological engineering: A Singapore case study”.

Article Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2014.11.006

                                                              

In the article, Lai et al. (2014) mentioned that during the expansion of cities, like Singapore, land reclamation may be exercised to provide sufficient space required for developments. However, they also mentioned that the anthropogenic activity take place at the expense of the natural coastal habitat and the biodiversity available at these locations. As lands are being reclaimed, these natural coastlines are replaced with artificial shores and coastal defence structures. In cases whereby conservation is not viable and development is inevitable, ecological engineering can be implemented in these man-made features in order to help to reduce the magnitude of the environmental impacts. As Singapore is a small island country surrounded by waters, the additional lands needed for development are acquired through reclamation and it will be feasible to adopt such an approach that can attain the economic interest and yet minimising environmental impact and also able to help maintain biodiversity.

Tropical marine species are observed to have assembled at the artificial coastal defence structures, like the seawalls, in Singapore, but the diversity of the species present on these synthetic sites were less diverse than that of the natural shores (Lee et al., 2009). The availability and distribution of the species were limited by the lack of habitable conditions. The construction materials, gradient of the slopes, complexity of the surface and physical conditions, like wave exposure, are attributes that affect the habitability of these artificial structures (Chapman & Underwood, 2014). Ecological engineering looks into these areas of constraints and facilitate the design and construction of these artificial structures to be more accommodating for the biological communities and less detrimental to the environment. In addition, transplantation of nursery-reared reefs onto these infrastructures can further assist in the recolonisation of the reef species that were loss during development or land reclamation and hence, enhancing the structures’ ecological value (Ng et al., 2015).

Nevertheless, more research needs to be done to better understand the consequence of these enhanced artificial habitats, like the interaction between species within the new habitat or any possible undesired effect from unnatural assemblages (Chapman & Underwood, 2014). As different species have differing sensitivity and susceptibility, not all species of the original habitat will be able to accommodate to the new artificial habitat. Therefore, the conservation of the natural habitat is the better approach while ecological engineering of artificial structures is an alternative in the effort to reduce the environmental impact and to retain a certain level of biodiversity.

Reference

Chapman, M. G. & Underwood, A. J. 2011. Evaluation of ecological engineering of “armoured” shorelines to improve their value as habitat. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology [online], April 2011, 400(1-2): 302-313. Available from: doi:10.1016/j.jembe.2011.02.025 [Accessed 12 September 2015].

Lai, S., Loke, Lynette H. L., Hilton, M. J., Bouma, T. J. & Todd, P. A., 2014. The effects of urbanisation on coastal habitats and the potential for ecological engineering: A Singapore case study. Ocean & Coastal Management [online], January 2015, 103: 78-85. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2014.11.006 [Accessed 11 September 2015].

Lee, A. C., Tan, K. S. & Sin, T. M., 2009. Intertidal Assemblages on Coastal Defence Structures in Singapore I: A Faunal Study. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 2009 [online], Dec 2009, 22: 237-254. Available from: https://lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg/nus/pdf/PUBLICATION/Raffles%20Bulletin%20of%20Zoology/Supplements/Supplement%2022/s22rbz237-254.pdf [Accessed 12 September 2015].

Ng, C. S. L., Lim, S. C., Ong, J. Y., Teo, L. M. S., Chou, L. M., Chua, K. E. & Tan, K. S., 2015. Enhancing the biodiversity of coastal defence structures: Transplantation of nursery-reared reef biota onto intertidal seawalls. Ecological Engineering [online], September 2015, 82: 480-486. Available from: doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2015.05.016 [Accessed 12 September 2015].