Chemistry Project 

Water Quality

Water quality refers to the condition of the water, which includes its chemical, physical and biological characteristic - the quality of a water is comes into play when figuring out its suitability for a particular purpose. Water quality can be tested in multiple ways, the simplest of which is to purchase a Home Water Testing Kit, these kits can easily be purchased online by anyone and have simple instructions that are easy to follow, thus making it one of the more convenient ways to test water quality. Good water quality is important to sustain ecological processes that support fish populations, vegetation, wetlands and birdlife. If water in lakes, for example, are polluted it could wreck havoc on the ecological balance by stimulating plant growth and causing the death of animals living in the lake such as fishes by suffocating them with the lack of oxygen in the water, the polluted water would also affect other land animals who depend on the lake water. 

Jurong Eco Garden - CleanTech Park 

The main separation technique utilised in Jurong Eco Garden is cleansing biotopes, cleansing biotopes offer effective water treatment while also being able to maintain a natural and beautiful environment. Cleansing biotopes consists of carefully chosen plants in a filter medium that helps to cleanse the water by filtering the pollutants and absorbing the nutrients.

Rainwater from the sedimentation pond in Jurong Eco Garden is channelled to the cleansing biotope, the substrates will filter the smaller particles while breaking down pathogens in the rainwater (as stated in the photograph on the right which was taken by our science teacher) 

Jurong Eco Garden uses plants such as Paper Reeds (Cyperus papyru) and Purple Showers (Ruellia brittoniana) to filter the water. This technique of separation fits the theme of 'eco-friendly' because the most visible part of this filtering device would be the plants  (as seen in the second picture), the beautiful plants that were selected would blend in perfectly to the green, eco-friendly park while also being able to filter water at the same time. 

Jurong Lake Park

We could make Jurong Lake Park more eco-friendly and improve the water qualitiy in the lake at the same time by adopting the same separation techniques as Jurong Eco-Garden. We will be able to kill two birds with one stone by doing so, the park would be much more greener as the water the plants filter will provide them with abundant nutrients for them to blossom beautifully while also filtering out the pollutants that would otherwise harm the life of the organisms living in the lake and possibly other animals living close to the lake. The water quality in the lake could be monitored by observing how animals in the lake and nearby react to the change, if the fishes in the lake are reacting well to this change it will be proof that this water separation technique is a great method to use. 

Credits

Xin Ru: Write up for part A

Alyssa and Irfa: Write up for part B

Yong Xuan: Write up for part C

The definition of water quality: 

http://floridakeys.noaa.gov/scisummaries/wqfaq.pdf

Effects of water pollution on an ecosystem: 

http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/teacher_resources/project_ideas/pollution/

How water quality affects our ecosystem and economy: 

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/water/waterqual.htm

Second photograph for cleansing biotopes:

http://www.asianurbanepicenters.com/?p=3059

Biology Project

Introduction to Jurong Eco Garden 

Jurong Eco Garden is a business park that is located at Cleantech Loop. The park consists of many different forms of wildlife and plants, there are a total of more than 139 species of flora and fauna and among this large number of species, 6 are considered species of conservation interest. The area has been turned into a lush forest and has provisions for tree conservation, the park also features a holistic stormwater management system which collects rainwater so that it can be used for things such as toilet flushing or irrigation. We were not able to visit the park due to the bad weather, which was slightly disappointing. We were told to stay within the building which also contained a large variety of flora and fauna, the plants and animals inside the building itself were extremely pleasing to the eye.

Grouping and naming organisms 

This is an image of a spider lily that we found online. We spotted multiple spider lilies at Cleantech One but unfortunately we had not taken any photos. 

The scientific name for this particular spider lily is Hymenocallis caribaea. It's common name was given to it due to its curved petals that are attached to a shallow cup, this gave off an effect of a spidery daffodil, thus the common name "spider lily" was created.





Another plant we spotted at the park was a very commonly found plant referred to as "lady fern". Similarly to the previous photo, this was also obtained from the internet.

The scientific name for this plant is Athyrium filix-femina. There are 2 main reasons as to why this particular plant is referred to as "lady fern", 1 reason could be that it got its name due to how its reproductive structures are concealed in a female manner on the frond, another reason could be due to its elegant and graceful appearance.

Impacts of man on biodiversity 

Jurong Eco Garden promotes biodiversity by putting up signs around the park to educate the public about biodiversity.
These signs explain the definition of words/phrases such as eco-pond and cleansing biotope, other than the definitions the signs also provide reasons as to why these are important and how they will help the biodiversity in one way or another.

The two pictures provided were taken by our Science Teacher, Ms Lim.

There are many ways for us to slow the loss of biodiversity. We could attempt to slow down climate changes such as global warming by using more renewable resources instead of non-renewable sources. Instead of using an air-conditioner we should use fans more often as they use up lesser energy, when looking into purchasing a car, an electric car is highly recommended, although more expensive than other cars, an electric car would be better for the environment as it does not produce as much carbon dioxide compared to a normal car, moreover, it will be a good investment as it is easier to maintain than other cars.
Education also plays an important part in slowing the loss of biodiversity. Informing others about the severe situation with our loss of biodiversity will surely change their outlook on life, education will also encourage others to change their ways, one does not have to be a teacher to spread this sort of information, we could all play a part by informing our friends and family.

Conclusion 

Jurong Eco Garden is home to more than 130 species of flora and fauna which makes it quite clear that the authorities are attempting to spread the importance of biodiversity and they seem to be doing a good job of that, I think that we are extremely lucky that the authorities in Singapore are making an effort to promote biodiversity, there are many countries that do not do this. They're efforts to safeguard the natural environment is extremely effective, if you are not indoors you will most likely see trees and grass around you, this is something that other cities lack as most parts of their cities will be covered with concrete which is a shame considering how beautiful nature is. Other than making more parks similar to Jurong Eco Garden, the authorities should try to educate the public more about biodiversity, currently, people would either have to visit the parks or specifically search for information on biodiversity to learn more about it, the authorities should put up more posters to promote diversity and to advertise parks such as Jurong Eco Garden, these posters should be placed at crowded areas such as a shopping mall so that more people will be able to see it.

Credits

Xin Ru: Write up for part A, C and D
Alyssa: Write up for part B
Irfa and Yong Xuan: Collected data

Jurong Eco Garden:
http://www.jtc.gov.sg/industrial-land-and-space/pages/jurong-eco-garden.aspx

Photograph for spider lily:
 http://gardendrum.com/2012/04/07/spider-lilies-of-summer-and-autumn/

Photograph for lady fern:
http://naturalhistoryofpws-ak.blogspot.sg/2014/11/fern-athyrium-filix-fermina-filelady.html

Ways to slow down global warming:
http://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/global-warming/solutions/global-warming-solutions-reduce-emissions#.V9qvUFWKTIU

Gasoline cars vs electric cars:
 http://blog.ucsusa.org/rachael-nealer/gasoline-vs-electric-global-warming-emissions-953

Ways to slow down biodiversity:
http://www.priweb.org/globalchange/bioloss/bl_06.html