Diversity of terrestrial snails and slugs in Nee Soon freshwater swamp forest, Singapore

Many invertebrate and plant species are difficult to identify even by taxonomic experts. This has created a major obstacle for understanding the ecology of tropical environments. Here we explore the use of new large-scale, cost-effective approaches to species identification using Next-Generation Sequencing ("DNA barcodes"). Due to the rapid drop in sequencing cost, such barcodes have the potential to help with many identification tasks and they will facilitate regular monitoring of habitats. We use this approach to explore the species diversity of Nee Soon freshwater swamp forest and provide taxonomic identification tools for the fauna and flora of the forest. DNA-barcode libraries were generated for the flora (>1000 barcodes; 170 chloroplast genomes) and fauna (ca. 3000 barcodes). In addition, highresolution images of 502 animal and 200 plant species were placed on an online image database ("Biodiversity of Singapore"). These images are available to help experts and non-experts alike to identify and appreciate these species. The new databases document Nee Soon's impressive diversity, but they are also important for in-depth studies of fauna-floral species interactions. For example, the plant barcodes were used to reconstruct the diet of Raffles' banded langur based on faecal samples. Overall, we find that the fauna in Nee Soon freshwater swamp forest is very diverse and includes many rare species, and that the species composition is very distinct from those living in surrounding habitats. Animal specimens are readily sequenced, while plant specimens (especially those represented by sapwood samples) remain a challenge. However, newer techniques (e.g. based on genome skimming) are starting to help with obtaining plant DNA-barcodes.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2) Faunal identifications: Nee Soon freshwater swamp forest was extensively surveyed by Faunal Ecology teams (Ho et al, 2018;Lim et al, 2018) who collected a large number of specimens. We imaged these specimens using specialised digital camera systems and sequenced the COI barcode for these specimens using Sanger sequencing and NGS.…”

Section: Main Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Next-Generation identification tools for Nee Soon freshwater swamp forest, Singapore

Kutty¹,

Wang²,

Y³

et al. 2018

“…Ho et al (2018) describe the aquatic macrofauna. Lim et al (2018) list the molluscs of Nee Soon, and Cai et al (2018a) the odonates, in the terrestrial and aquatic domains. Kutty et al (2018) describe the use of next generation sequencing to forge the links between field identifications and image databases of the freshwater swamp forest flora and fauna.…”

Section: Delivery Of Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated research, conservation and management of Nee Soon freshwater swamp forest, Singapore: hydrology and biodiversity

Davison¹,

Cai²,

Li³

et al. 2018

Self Cite

ABSTRACT. The current paper acts as an introduction to nine following papers concerning the hydrology and biodiversity of Nee Soon freshwater swamp forest. Freshwater swamp forest is a threatened and overlooked ecosystem in the Southeast Asian region and in Singapore. Characterised by predominantly mineral soils supporting forest that contains a subset of the flora and fauna of lowland forest, but with the addition of important habitat specialists, freshwater swamp forest is fed by an array of hydrological processes. As conservation management depends on good hydrological and biological understanding, a research programme was designed to tease out the roles of the various hydrological components. The background, management concerns, and aims of the project are detailed.

“…Another eight papers have been accepted for publication Chong et al, 2018;Clews et al, 2018;Ho et al, 2018;Kutty et al, 2018;Lim et al, 2018;Nguyen et al, 2018;Sun et al, 2018). used for editing and data management.…”

Section: # Aims Achievementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Literature Review of freshwater swamp forest literature and research on the Nee Soon freshwater swamp forest updated (Tan et al, 2013;Clews et al, 2018); new results derived from this project presented on vegetation (Chong et al, 2018), fauna Li et al, 2016;Ho et al, 2018;Lim et al, 2018) and cryogenics (Kutty et al, 2018).…”

Section: # Aims Achievementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation outputs and recommendations for Nee Soon freshwater swamp forest, Singapore

CAI¹,

Davison²,

Chan³

et al. 2018

Self Cite

ABSTRACT. The current paper acts as a summary to the "Nee Soon Swamp Forest biodiversity and hydrology baseline studies project", including results published previously and the results from papers of the current volume. Overall, flora and fauna surveys indicate healthy and diverse plant, fish and aquatic macroinvertebrate communities in Nee Soon freshwater swamp forest. There are some concerns over terrestrial and aquatic alien invasive species, loss of big emergent trees, small population sizes and viability of various native species, and the uncertain outcomes of changes in water quality and quantity. The findings inform management that Nee Soon freshwater swamp forest is especially vulnerable to changes in hydrology and there is much dependency on precipitation for its water budget. Projected climate change effects on precipitation and statistical analyses of biotic responses to hydrology clearly define drought as a major, perhaps the foremost, source of vulnerability to the ecosystem functioning of Nee Soon freshwater swamp forest. Potential management solutions are suggested to address five issues of concern for the forest: hydrological integrity, erosion and sedimentation, ecological integrity, the impact of the spillway, and impacts of construction and development.