With the intense urbanisation and industrialisation along Singapore’s coastline, the coastal marine environment has been polluted with various man-made chemicals and heavy metals. Marine fauna subject to this pollution can become stressed and can suffer from impaired body functioning.

By acting on individuals, pollutants can affect the functioning of the entire ecosystem, a condition known as eco-toxicity. Therefore, the extent of the pollutants’ impact on individual organisms provides not just an assessment of the quality of their physical environment, but also how affected the ecosystem is. In particular, filter feeders such as mussels often accumulate such pollutants and toxins, which make them ideal indicators of environmental contamination.

The Marine Eco-toxicity Biomonitoring Project aims to monitor the levels of eco-toxicity in the coastal areas in Singapore using physiological, behavioural and DNA tests on green mussels (Perna viridis) that have been left out at various sites. These tests help us find out how anomalous various body functions are and serve as an indication of stress levels in the mussels.

Students learning about eco-toxicology in the theory session.

Changes in these parameters over several weeks will indicate changes to the water conditions, and will hopefully serve as a warning system for pollutants and contamination.

 
NIE research staff teaching the students to extract blood from the mussels during the practical session.

Through this programme, students would be able to participate in active research by conducting fieldtrips and laboratory experiments, enabling them to learn more about the marine environment in Singapore, and contribute towards the protection of vulnerable coastal habitats.

One of the student participants in the 2014 cohort was Leong from Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary School. His school deposited their mussels along the coast off Sembawang and he shared his experience with us:

“I enjoyed the workshops immensely, as it gave me an opportunity to try out experiments in an actual lab. The real-world application of the experiments taught were more interesting than the ones we were exposed to in school. I had fun dissecting and extracting blood from the mussels, I had never seen the insides of the animal before, nor did I know they had blood like us!

Students removing treat and untreated mussels from the aquaria (left), and using a microscope to study them (right).

I had looked forward to the deployment of the mussels in Sembawang. On first glance, the venue seemed less exciting than I had imagined, but when we went down down to the field site it was an eye opener for me. It was teeming with life!

A student deploying mussels at Punggol Jetty.

I saw brown crabs the size of my thumb with black dots on them, barnacles and various sea anemones. As we tied the packets of mussels to the jetty pillars, the NIE scientist told us more about the natural history of the marine creatures we had encountered. It was a real treat to see them up-close like this. At the end, although I was tired from the field trip, it was a great experience from school! I look forward to the lab sessions when we collect our mussels at the end of three months!”

With continued monitoring efforts by students like Leong, we should be able to monitor the changing water conditions over time and keep our waters safe for everyone to enjoy.

Text and photos by Samantha Lai

Marine Eco-toxicity Biomonitoring Project
The 3-year programme was initiated in May 2014 and a total of 10 schools signed up for the first year of the programme, with 99 students and 23 teachers participating. The monitoring was done in partnership with various schools around Singapore, and was facilitated by trainers from the National Institute of Education (NIE) and NParks. Students were taught to do laboratory tests on the mussel body functioning, and also participated in and field components such as the deployment and collection of mussels at various field sites. Interested schools can contact Samantha at CIN@NParks.gov.sg for the registration form.
The 2015 cycle will commence in June.

Glossary
Filter feeders - Animals that feed by straining suspended matter and food particles from water, typically by passing the water over a specialised filtering structure.