As famously quoted by adventurer, Bear Grylls, many life forms have to adapt to their surrounding environment to survive and thrive. The various amazing plant adaptations to their respective ecosystems was my biggest takeaway from my field trip to Singapore Botanic Gardens’ (SBG) Learning Forest and Keppel Discovery Wetlands with my Applied Biogeography class, led by Professor Coffman. I found great joy in identifying different plant adaptations and understanding their purpose! Now whenever I visit parks or my own field site, I keep a keen eye on unique adaptations. It changed the way I see nature and the environment and gave me greater insight to the biotic and abiotic factors in each ecosystem. Everyone should visit the SBG Learning Forest and Keppel Discovery Wetlands to learn and gain a new vision of the environment!

A win-win situation

An ecosystem is an ideal community where plants and animals live in harmony and support of each other. In tropical rainforests, epiphytes are often found growing on other taller trees for physical support and a higher chance of receiving sunlight for sustenance. The villous fig (Ficus villosa) (Figure 1) intrigued me as I had never seen an epiphyte cover its supporting tree like clothing! To me, this arrangement looks like a result of two plants adapting to create a win-win situation; the villous fig gets more sunlight and the tree protects its bark.

Figure 1: A villous fig (Ficus villosa) ‘clothing’ a tree. (Photo credit: Madeleine Shutler, 12 February 2022).
Villous figs are native to Singapore and critically endangered species.

Prickly rules

Professor Coffman pointed out the snakefruit palm (Salacca zalacca) (Figure 2) to us during the tour and I had never seen thorns this neatly organised in rings around the stems. They are meant to protect the plant and its (apparently) delicious stems from people and animals. These thorns are certainly effective in deterring me, they look awfully sharp!

Figure 2: A snakefruit palm (Salacca zalacca)
The snakefruit palm is nonnative to Singapore (Photo credit: Emily Yip).

Snorkels of the wetlands

An abiotic factor plants must adapt to survive in wetland ecosystems is the lack of oxygen flow due to water-logged soils. Many plants that grow in wetlands have porous, aerenchyma tissue in their stems (Figure 3) to increase oxygen movement in the plant.

Figure 3: A cross-section cut of a stem to show aerenchyma tissue. (Photo credit: Madeleine Shutler).

Another incredible avenue for oxygen intake by plants is through their roots (Figure 4). Stilt roots and pneumatophores, or “pencil roots”, are used by wetland trees to increase their intake of oxygen. Stilt roots provide stability in the process too.

Figure 4: An educational board, along the wetland restoration boardwalk, on different tree roots.

Home invasion

The harmony of tropical rainforest and wetland ecosystems can be broken by the invasion of species that do not belong. A current issue at the wetland restoration site is the exponential growth of the hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillate) (Figure 5) that will eventually make the wetlands uninhabitable for many of its species if they are not removed.

Figure 5: Invasive hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillate) in the wetland restoration site. (Photo credit: Madeleine Shutler).

Uncontrolled hydrilla growth in Keppel wetlands is partially due to the lack of resources to remove the species as the 5-year maintenance contract ended. This emphasises the importance of proper maintenance of our restoration and conservation sites, by continuously engaging relevant stakeholders. Conservation and restoration are not simply a one-time effort. The plants have done their part to adapt and overcome challenges to survive in their environments, we have to do our part in making it easier for them so that they can improvise, adapt and overcome challenges to survive and thrive!

 

by: Emily Yip (A0187547M)