Article in Nature in Singapore

From: Nature in Singapore

Nature in Singapore will publish articles of the Natural History, Biology, Botany, Zoology, Ecology and Conservation Biology of the Republic of Singapore.

In particular, articles on new sightings, new records or rediscoveries of nationally extinct species of animals and plants, as well as the Natural History of Singapore are targeted.

The journal will also publish articles from outside Singapore that deal with species or taxonomic groups whose natural distributions overlap with Singapore. Articles outside the stated policy will be accepted at the discretion of the Editor/Editorial Board of NiS.

My article has been published in the above online journal! :)

You can read it here!

My Prof. is the editor! He is so efficient! :)

It's a great encouragement to me! I hope to be able to improve on my research skills and writing ability!

I got a B+ for the UROPs module. Prof. thinks it's because I couldn't defend myself during the oral presentation. So that shall be something I need to work on in any future endeavors in research, to be able to express myself, speak confidently, and believe in what I'm doing, enough to defend what I do.

Summary of Survey Results

Attitudes towards Biological Conservation of the SSS 1207 Class of Undergraduate Students

Date of Survey: 21 Feb 2008

Participants: Class of 405 with 310 respondents (76.5%) but only 280 (69.1%) completed the survey, so only their responses were used for the analyses.

Finding 1: Students had similar conservation attitudes for plant species, animal species or natural habitats and did not value any one more over the other.

Finding 2: Students were more likely to exhibit private conservation behaviours than public conservation behaviours.

Finding 3: Students from the income groups with less than $4,000 per month or more than $8,000 per month, had more pro-conservation attitudes compared to students from the $4,000–8,000 group.

Finding 4: Students who are taking or had previously taken conservation-related modules had more pro-conservation attitudes than those who have not.

Finding 5: Students who are from the School of Computing have more pro-conservation attitudes than average; while students from the Business School have less pro-conservation attitudes than average (see below).

The ranking of conservation attitude results are as follows:

1. School of Computing
2. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
3. School of Design and Environment
4. Faculty of Science
5. Faculty of Engineering
6. Business School

Social Science VS Hard Science

I sometimes find it amazing, the wild gulf between me as a student and others, the Scientists.

While I worry about not getting enough rest and not being sharp enough, not practising enough, not knowing enough; the Scientists asks the critical questions...

Do you have the social scientists' perspective on this?

Did you know this survey applied to another group of people would have quite different results?

Are your questions about to test for what you want to test?

Are your questions set in the right way to test for that?

Did you consider this and that? Did you group the income groups arbitrary? You know how social scientist do it?

These type of questions are not what I worried myself with, though I should be. I feel enlightened. Many things Prof. Ng questioned me about, I was not even aware were issues, and many things he pointed out, gave me new perspective and depth as to what I should be thinking about.

And Mr Chua, the herbarium keeper, just reminded me how lucky I was to have him as an examiner, as he's an extremely busy man.

I am happy to put a short closure to this and take a break for now.

But Prof. Ng asked me to seriously consider whether I want to do something like this for my Honours project... Which would be the question I will need to discuss with the rest and answer.

I have been very humbled by this UROPS experience. It has open my eyes to many things and reminds me constantly, how little I know, and the shallowness to which I know, and nudges me to keep learning, not to compare and feel inferior, but to keep learning.

Oral Presentation

I have not been updating about my progress, but much has been going on behind the blog.

After submission of the report, the next task, we UROPS students had, was to prepare an oral presentation of our research project and be examined by two examiners. Supposedly, one would be familiar with the topic of the research, the other should be less familar (according to what Dr. Matthew Lim mentioned in Ecology class today). I got Prof. Peter Ng and Prof. Chou Loke Ming. My Professors for Natural Heritage of Singapore. A lot of people went like, "Wow, two FULL Profs!"

After hanging around as a 3rd year student, I start to hear things like high impact journal articles, prestigious journals (Science and Nature), things I never knew existed at all as a freshmen or 2nd year students It opens your eyes to things. You hear about getting things published. And how that is a goal of the Professors and his or her students, to get things publish, in a reputable journal. :) And you see your lecturers names on journals and all and you go WOW.

Yes, but Prof. Ng (fish and crabs) and Prof. Chou (marine life) are like my "idols", people I really look up to because of the work they have done in the local conservation scene and the passion that exudes out of them when they talk about it in class. [My supervisor, Prof. Tan (native plants) is also another very passionate conservationist.] So I feel really very honoured to have them examine me. Like to be able to have a bit of their time, to pay attention to what I say and question me, is a very precious experience.

Nevertheless, it was painful preparing for it. My lack of confidence, fear and timidity reached its maximum as I hesitated at every step I took. But I am very thankful for my supervisor, mentors and labmates and my friend who gave me moral support and advice. That together with God's grace really pulled me through this difficult period.

I have one more oral presentation to go with Prof. Peter Ng on Wednesday. This time, I hope to be more steady and prepared than when I was with Prof. Chou on Friday. To really give it my best shot.

I need to share the results of my survey with you one day soon. I just realized I have not done so, though that might probably be on your mind.

What do the people of the class I surveyed think about plant species, animal species and natural habitat conservation? Which do they find more important? Or do they have equal concern?

What kind of conservation behaviours do they tend to exhibit? Private kind like educating friends and family and using conservation friendly products? Public kind like volunteering with a conservation club, signing a petition or writing a letter to the newspaper to advocate biodiversity conservation?

What motivates the people in this class to even want to conserve?

What are some predictors of conservation attitudes?
Income? Does being from a richer family cause one to have more pro-conservation attitudes?
Knowledge? Does having more biological knowledge correlate with pro-conservation attitudes?
What about what the student studies in school? Does that affect his conservation attitude too?
Among students taking this module from the various faculties in NUS, which faculty students tend to perform better, and which worse?

Those are some questions I tried to answer in my study and I shall share more really soon.

Why no ferrets in Singapore?

I used to play this online game where we own ferrets and race them in competitions. And the cuteness of these animals made me want to have one, which back then, I oftened wondered, how come we don't have them here in Singapore?

I finally figured out why, 10 years later.

Prof. Peter Ng mentioned in class that many people come to the departement requesting to bring in non-native species into the country for various reasons, as pets etc. But being conservationists, they have a duty to protect the existing biodiversity in Singapore and do not want these creatures to become ecological disasters here like many other alien species already have.

So, here you have it, that's why we don't have pirannas or poison dart frogs or ferrets! ;)

The Importance of Biodiversity in Singapore's Context

Even after
all this time,
the sun never says to the earth,
"You owe me."

Look what happens
with a love like that.
It lights
the whole sky.
(Hafiz)

Sun, do you not know.
You don't only light the whole sky,
You give life to all
The plants take from you
and they make food for us!
They give us their wood for our fire and homes
They give us shelther
They make the air clean
They decorate our gardens and put a cheer on our face.
The plants also give to us so freely,
because they know their unending source.
So let us be gentle with the earth
They owe us nothing
but we owe them everything

"The forest habitat provides us with goods and services for free, as they receive solar energy from the sun, free of charge and they convert it to carbon." - paraphrased from Prof. Chou Loke Ming's SSS1207 lecture - The importance of Biodiversity in Singapore's context.

"Tree is a living symbol of boundless benevolence. It does not demand from anybody for its own nourishment. It goes on giving enormous quantities of useful materials to the world. Not only this but it goes on giving shade to a woodcutter who has come to cut it." (Lord Buddha)

There's so much we can actually learn from nature. We don't just receive, we give as well. The Sun must be the true altruist. Always giving, always burning.

Biodiversity and Conservation in Singapore - past, present, future? by Leo W H Tan

Prof. Leo Tan visited to our Natural Heritage SSS1207 lecture yesterday as a guest speaker. I was excited, as I often come across his name in books, in papers and just being mentioned by people around. And he gave such a moving and inspirational speech about conservation in Singapore that I told my friends that we must go down and talk to him after the lecture. We must quickly think up of questions to ask him.

Conservation comes alive!
What moved me was how he made conservation come to life. Prof. Tan admitted himself that as a student he often got bored of the textbooks and many didn't teach in an engaging manner, he would much rather get out of the classroom and inspect nature. It is the same case for me, I honestly could not understand why so many of our Biology lecturers are conservationist. Are the two so tightly intertwined and correlated? I must admit, I expressed shocked when I first asked Prof. Hugh Tan, my supervisor what projects does he do. However, Prof. Leo Tan, for the first time in my life, helped me to see the heart of a conservationist.

Imagine your laboratory metamorphosing into a airport runway
He talked about the beneficial roles of biodiversity and what it means to Singapore in the past, present and future. Some moving examples he gave was how he and Prof. Peter Ng and him were working on their research project back in the late 1970s on Changi Beach, but in 1981, halfway through their 7-year project, their project disappeared as the government reclaimed that piece of land for the Changi terminal 2 runway. This one really clicked with my heart, and at once, I felt the anguish of losing something one had invested in and one loved. To me, if that had happened to me, it would make me even more eager to share with others the biodiversity in Singapore to try to think of creative solutions to conserve as much as possible.

What is the value of a tree?
My heart was also stirred when Prof. Leo Tan talked about scrupulous contractors who indiscriminately poisoned, ringed the bark of (murder by removal of phloem) and chop down trees in the past due to the low fine of S$10 000, a small sum compared to what they can possibly earn by developing the land on which the tree sits on. He cited an example of how a contractor was fined S$84 000 instead of the S$10 000 for chopping down the Changi tree as the tree was worth $76 000. That's why not we give each heritage in Singapore a value, to protect our trees.

There were many other interesting examples he gave such as the success story of Pulau Semakau - the paradise rubbish island, MM Lee's role in supporting the Gardens at the Bay project at Marina, the indirect economic benefit to biodiversity in Singapore like for securing FTAs and FDIs. But those for another time perhaps.

It is the first time for me to, after a lecture, go down to the lecturer and tell him I was so inspired by him. His speech had a therapeutic effect with removed my inhibition. I thank him for taking time to visit us and to share his passion with us.

To round it up, the most pressing question I had in me was. What is your main motivation for conservation? And it turns out to be for the conservation of self, so that we can live in a healthy environment. :) It is so simple and meaningful. It's not like those lofty ideals nor like a moralistic stance, but one that comes from the heart. Because I am part of this earth and if the earth is sick, I would be sick too.

Statistics is a powerful tool!

We have been using the evaluation version of SPSS 16.0 EV to analyse data. We used things like Reliability Analysis, Principal Component Analysis and Generalized Linear Models (GLZ).

I was just talking to Kok Sheng over a meal yesterday that we should have more training in statistical analysis. Nobody teaches us how to but many expect us to know.

We did have formal training in Statistics. We did two statistics models as a Life Sciences student. But never had I imagined, I would actually be doing it hands on later on in my life.

If I could do it again, I would have paid more attention during Statistics lessons, asked more questions, consulted lecturers more, take time to understand and to think and to apply and learn the heart of doing statistics. I would have ask Prof. Kwong and Prof. Chang, what is it about statistics that they made their your career, that you have so much passion and energy for it? Unlike many students who so struggle with it. That would be the heart of statistics.

Prof. Chua Tin Chiu said, "Concentrate on getting the process right, the results are secondary."

How to Cite the Acknowledgments

From the book "How to write and publish a scientific paper" by R. A. Day

"Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Isn't is so strange that the part of the report I was most looking forward to do was the acknowledgments?

I have been very blessed through this experience. As the days toward submission draw nearer and nearer, I guess it is this gratefulness to those who advised me, invested in and cared for me that will push me on! And my desire to transmit information with love, with energy and with materials.

How to write and publish a scientific paper by R. A. Day

I love prefaces! And this writer sounds like an absolutely nice man.

"There are four things that make this world go round: love, energy, materials, and information. We see about us a critical shortage of the first commodity, a near-critical shortage of the second, increasing shortage of the third, but an absolute glut of the fourth.

We in science, of necessity, must contribute to the glut. But let us do it with love, especially love of the English language, which is the cornerstone of our intellectual heritage; let us also do it with energy, the energy we need to put into the scientific paper so that the reader will not need to use much energy to get the information out of the paper; and let us husband our materials, especially our words, so that we do not waste inordinate quantities of paper and ink in trying to tell the world more than we know."

"The research scientist must provide a written document showing what he did, why he did it, how he did it, and what he learnt from it."

"In this way, the reader, particularly the graduate student and fledgling writer, may get something of the flavor of just what a scientific paper is."

Nature Conservation, back in those days

"Corner still recalls how close he got to physical violence in those days, while striving to protect Bukit Timah. His tactic was to distract the illegal wood-cutters by tossing their hats into the undergrowth, while his Malay assistant, Mohd. Noor, would snatch their axes and throw them away too. When the Colonial Secretary received complaints from the Chinese Chamber of Commerce about a strange European harassing Chinese citizens in the forest, Corner had to explain to that their activities there were unacceptable. The Colonial Secretary then replied to the Chamber in writing that the logging was illegal, and wrote to the Gardens to say that Bukit Timah was in effect protected. Thus came the first intimation that Bukit Timah might soon be designated a proper reserve."

A snippet from a book that looks tantalizingly amazing - A View from the Summit, The Story of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve 1996. Published by NTU, NUS, NParks

A brief modern history of environmentalism in Singapore

Over the many years since the conception of Singapore, looking at the rate in which we level down hills, clear forested area and reclaimed our coral reefs, one could be forgiven for thinking that the government values economic development over environmental conservation. Reading articles by the Nature Society when it tries to halt the loss of habitats and the often times bleak news about the state of the environment in the newspaper, further strengthens this view.

However, I have a new view of the government as I sit amongst books, proposals, survey findings etc. about the governments many efforts to promote environmentalism in Singapore, here in the library. They were interested to measure Singaporean's understanding and attitudes about environmentalism and to educate the general public about green issues. Though the emphasis on brown issues is considerably smaller, they are still there in black and white on these manuscripts.

Here on my lap are survey findings about the Environment Protection Campaign. The Ministry of Environment had commissioned these consultancies to test whether Singaporeans are aware of the Clean and Green campaign, whether there has been any effect on their attitudes and behaviour, whether they were aware of the main environmental issues. These were done in the early 1900s, probably an age I was too young to remember the details, though I remember the cute frog picture on the dustbin telling me to use it.

I recently read an old article about how the NUS marine biology lab was asked to survey the waters off Bedok river, to test if the release of affluent from sewage negatively affected the water quality and the diversity and abundance of the sea creatures living there. And there was an Interfaculty Conference On Environmental Issues In Development and Conservation organised by the School of Building and Estate Management in NUS in 1993. In this conference, many professors from different faculties such as School of Architecture, Department of Geography, Department of Botany shared their opinions about development and conservation in Singapore. I am also very impressed that Dr. Ho Hua Chew, the head of the Nature Society's conservation committee was from the Department of Philosophy.

The Green Plan is actually very impressive to me, that our leaders had the forsight to develop Singapore into an "environment city" despite the many constraints a small city like ours might have. The new Singapore Green Plan 2012 has a new slogan as well: Beyond Clean and Green, towards Environmental Sustainability.

Even more amazing I believe are the many many individuals ranging from professors to the common man who could appreciate the beauty and the treasure trove of wildlife that we have here in Singapore. These are the unsung heroes who spearheaded nature conservation in Singapore. Their legacy lives on in many books, many proposals for conservation, many societies that were formed and most significantly in the lives of the people now who continue this passionate act of love for nature now. Whether one has the influence to write a journal article to impact many at once from far, or the influence to educate fellow Singapores about the biodiversity hidden in many areas of our concrete jungle at close proximity, it does not matter. I wish to salute you all for the work that you have done and are doing.

This is a very brief glimpse into a very recent past. It's very incomplete (due to time constraints), but very interesting, isn't it?

Writing the Paper

"A paper on a scientific or technical subject necessarily consists of (a) a report of facts, (b) an interpretation of facts, or (c) a combination of a report and an interpretation.

"A scientific paper is intended to be studied and used as a reference; it is not merely to be read. Hence literary devices should be subordinated if they interfere with clearness. The plan should be self-evident throughout the composition."

The materials and methods will need to be able to provide details that enable future researchers to repeat the methodology.

Title (brevity and comprehensiveness)

Abstract (a brief condensation of the whole paper)

Introduction
A) Nature of the problem; its state at the beginning of the investigation
B) Purpose, scope, and method of the investigation.
C) Most significant outcome of the investigation; the state of t he problem at the end of the investigation.

Materials and Methods
A) Description of the equipment and materials employed.
B) Explanation of the way in which the work was done. (Give sufficient detail to enable a competent worker to repeat your experiments. Emphasize the features that are new.)

Experiments and results
A) Description of the experiments.
B) Description of the results. (If possible, these should be shown in tables and graphs.)

Discussion of results
A)Main principles, causal relations, or generalizations that are shown by the results. (Choose one or several main conclusions that your evidence tends to prove.)
B) Evidence (as shown by the data) for each of the main conclusions.
C) Exceptions and opposing theories, and explanation of these.
D) Comparison of your results and interpretations with those of other workers.

From: How to Write Scientific and Technical Papers by Sam F. Trelease (1958) The M. I. T. Press

How to Be a Statistics Sleuth: Seven Critical Components (Utts 2005)

Component 1: The source of the research and of the funding

Component 2: The researchers who had contact with the participants

Component 3: The individuals or objects studied and how they were selected

Component 4: The exact nature of the measurements made or questions asked

Component 5: The setting in which the measurements were taken

Component 6: Differences in the groups being compared, in addition to the factor of interest

Component 7: The extent or size of any claimed effects or differences
---
Now, let's analyze my project with these seven components!

Component 1: NUS DBS Plant Systematics Laboratory, with honest motivations, seeking honest results.

Component 2: Assoc Prof Hugh T. W. Tan appealed to students to do the survey during his SSS1207 – Natural Heritage of Singapore class on the 21st of February 2008. A possible biased would be the influence the researcher might have on the participants, as participants are more likely to answer according to the desires of the researcher. Therefore having a conservation biologist conduct the survey would perhaps have some effect on the students.

Component 3: It is possible that students taking this module, do so, because they like nature, or have an interest to learn more about it. Hence, this sample selected is biased, and it would not be representative of the undergraduate student population in NUS.

Component 4: Some students avoided revealing their family income and religion and left blanks here and there. The questions asked were related to behaviour, attitude, knowledge and demographics.

Component 5: Survey was conducted before break time. Students might have been tired and rushing to finish the survey in order to have time to visit the toilet or get some food. This might have affected the quality of answers. But students overall appeared very cooperative.

Component 6 is not applicable.

Component 7 would be discussed in time to come.

Reference:
Utts, J. M. 2005. Seeing Through Statistics. Third Edition. Brooks/Cole

protocol problems

If I could start all over again...

I would first seek the Statistician's advise and also the Social Scientist's advise before proceeding any further to plan and conduct a survey.

I would not be so short-sighted as to forget human emotions, human favors and the most humane way of doing things. For example, I no longer needed to survey Prof. Bernard Tan's and Dr. Pow's lecture classes anymore, but I should have still done it after they have agreed to it. Such that I will not make myself and my department and my Professor look stupid and also lose credibility.

I would be more realistic and less idealistic about completing tasks. This is one of my weakness, I have such great faith in things that do not warrant my faith at all.

I will not be a scaredy cat but to be more brave and manage my image less, so as not to miss out on opportunities to ask questions and to learn.

In a short span of a week, we visited Prof. Chua Tin Chiu, a very kind and humorous Professor who shared many anecdotes and advise on sampling. We decided not to survey the 2 lecture classes anymore. We decided to generate a list of the whole undergraduate population and pick a random sample of 5000 to email them. And then, we decided not to do it anymore and just take the results of the one class which I managed to perform the survey on, my own SSS1207 class.

In a short span of 2 days, with a little help from my friends, we got all the data into the excel file and I passed over the baton to Xingli, my mentor to analyze.

It has been a strange journey.

I am indebted to Prof. Bernard Tan and Dr. Pow. They have been so kind, so patient and so generous towards me. I must remember to wish them a Happy Christmas at the end of the year.

I am also very grateful for my Professor and mentors for their patience and care for a very inexperienced, very slow and not-so-smart student.

An Update

This blog badly needs an update if its purpose is to document my experience of doing a research project!

So far, I have managed to complete creating a 4-pages long questionnaire. Initially it was 8-pages long but with my Professor's help, it was shrunk to half its original length. That is good news for the trees! ;)

I managed to get permission from 3 lecturers to agree to allow me time to conduct my survey during their lessons. These are lecturers who have once taught me before and this I believe made them more compassionate towards me. The lecturers I emailed who have never met me, rejected me due to time constraints and one Statistics Professor rejected me as he disagreed on my methodology.

I learnt the importance of communication, being able to express myself well in English and also to have good written body language. This is actually one weakness I've struggled with since I was a child. English has always been my weakess subject and I have never managed to get the top grade for it. It was something I could never improve as I did not know how to study for it. Reading did not help me much either as I has always been a very avid reader. Prof. suggested writing 15 minutes a day, a proven method which has boosted a fellow student's grades up, which I seriously am considering!

I have photocopied 1000 copies of my survey forms and they lie waiting for their recipients to fill them in.

The next step would be to toughen my skin, take courage and stand firm. I would need perseverance and courage to speak to the whole LT to do my survey, meet the Statistics Professor to ask for help and to meet the tight deadline in the midst of other responsibilities.

This research project has really challenged my timidity and many times I find myself facing my inadequacies and insecurities. Being naturally timid and nervous, it was not easy even approaching my Professor or emailing another, nor am I very used to accepting corrections and criticisms. It was very scary for me today when I had to call a Statistics professor and speak to him over the phone (way more scarier than writing an email).

Though through a phone call, more "body language" can be passed on to the recipient, such as humility, sincerity, understanding, appreciation etc., yet to one like me, it also means the transference of my poor communication ability, my fear and insecurities. So this is something I must actively deal with as I do my research, to continue to improve my communication skills and becoming more confident and courageous.

As you can see, this project is challenging me in many areas, intellectually, socially and emotionally.

So here is a behind the scenes look at what a project such as this entails. I am very grateful for all the help offered to me and the kind understanding by my supervisors.

Insensitivity towards Ah Meng

I was really amused and disappointed by a short forum letter found on the newspaper on Wednesday, 13th of February. A reader wrote in his fears that Ah Meng's decomposing body, being buried near the Seletar Reservoir, would contaminate the water supply.

I felt that this was a very very insensitive letter. Many people are saddened about Ah Meng's death, so many attended her funeral. It is extremely untimely to be thinking about something like this during this period and even writing to the forum to aggravate grieving people.

I'm amazed that the forum editor allowed it to go through.

This really shows how little people understand about the cycle of life but more so their insensitivity towards the feelings of people.

All things must pass away. So do the fishes in the reservoir. So do the birds in the forest surrounding the reservoir. So do the insects and the toads and the plants and the lizards that roam the areas around the reservoir. No one ever complains about their decomposing bodies posing a hazard to the water supply. This is because the organic material will be recycled and become detritus and nutrients to sustain many cycles and food chains. Why is it that Ah Meng's body is special and must be brought up to the attention of Straits Times readers? And I believe, Ah Meng's body was placed in a coffin, like a proper burial would have.

Lim Bo Seng is also buried near MacRitchie reservoir. I wonder if some people worry about it as well.

Just food for thought. I did not know such a short and tiny letter would stimulate such great reaction in me.

Pangolin spotted in Bukit Panjang

From pangolin arti...

Found this in today's Straits Times. Just wanted to highlight the reaction of the residents. This pangolin had "attracted a small crowd trying to take a closer look or snapping pictures with their mobile phones."

I sincerely believe that many Singaporeans lack exposure to nature and that many are interested to find out more but either lack the means or the time to do so. I consistently realise this with conversations with my friends. Venetia whom I just met is interested to visit Chek Jawa to walk on the mud flats but after realizing she has to find a group and pay for it, she hesitated.

So this must be a plus point for biological conservation. Not indifference, but interest.

According to my natural heritage textbook, it's actually quite a rare occurence to see this beauty as they are shy nocturnal animals that sleep in underground burrows during the day. These manmmals wear an armour of large, overlapping scales, which are made of fused hair. They roll themselves into a ball projecting their scales outward in an intimidating pose when they are threatened to protect their soft, naked, underparts within. They are versatile and are found in primary and secondary forests and I guess in our case, even in urban areas! :)

Biological Conservation

What is biological conservation?

It is the conservation of biodiversity which is the full spectrum of living organisms and the variability of nature. The aim of biological conservation is to maintain the diversity of living organisms and their environments and also the interactions between the two.

Why is it important?

I was casually asking a few of my friends whether they think biological conservation was important and I was actually quite rather surprised with their replies. I cannot remember exactly what they told me but roughly along the lines of morality, education and religion.

Hanes was telling me that it was morally right to protect biodiversity. That nature has its intrinsic value whether or not they bring us benefits.

Zhixin was going along the lines that such conservation is essential for education and also to ensure future generations get to enjoy nature.

Huanyan asked me whether God would want us to conserve the biodiversity and it made me think for a while. For this is not an issue that organized religion focus a lot on. We might talk about cloning, or abortion, but biological conservation of species? It's not something discussed as a ethical or moral issue in my religion. So I talked about stewardship. I told Huanyan that that I believed God would want us to take care of the things we have on earth, not to be irresponsible and destructive to the things we own.

Other than education, moral and religious motivations towards biological conservation, people desire to conserve also for nature's aesthetic values, ecological and utilitarian reasons.

I for one would purely conserve because nature is beautiful. It's not everyday that I remember to smell the flowers or follow the outline of a fern, but when I do, it's one of the most amazing experience. Talking to birds and plucking wildflowers/weeds and just taking in deep breaths of fresh air, whether humid rain forest air, or salty mudflats or rotten mangrove wafts, they have therapeutic rewards for those who would only slow down and just for a moment appreciate the wonders of life.

Recently I took a video of mudskippers fighting and in courtship. It was fascinating trying to interprete what they were trying to do. And amazing that I could have a bird's eye view to capture that scene from the broadwalk of Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve.

Other people conserve because biodiversity is a utility, a resource for food, medication, research inspiration and other needs Mankind might have.

Still others who are more farsighted conserve because biodiversity plays an important role in maintaining the environment, whether ecosystems or climate. When we remove the living organisms that interact with their habitat, we are unknowingly supporting threats like global warming, landslides, harmful weather conditiions and CO2/O2 imbalances. Because both the biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) factors are required to interact in meaningful ways to maintain our ecological systems.

Order of Scientific Research

1. Find a topic to study
2. Develop research questions and hypothesis
3. Specify how to measure the variables in your hypotheses (operationalize)
4. Design a questionnaire
5. Develop a sample
6. Collect data
7. Prepare a code book and data file
8. Enter survey results in the data file
9. Analyze data statistically
10. Write up and present the results and conclusions

A little update on my progress. It's been a little slow.

But basically, the topic was given to me. :)

I have been spending the past days thinking about my research questions and came up with two:

1. What are the attitudes and perceptions of Singaporeans towards biological conservation?

2. What are the predictors of attitudes and perceptions towards biological conservation?

And I am doing literature review now. And trying to read up more about statistical research from some books.

I am currently quite interested in quantifying attitudes under attitudes, concern and behaviour through asking questions that might reveal those 3 aspects. (Hunter, 2000)

But there is also another method of classifying attitudes. Kellert's 9 basic attitudes (Kellert, 1993) include:
Aesthetic
Dominionistic
Ecologistic
Humanistic
Moralistic
Naturalistic
Negativistic
Scientistic
Utilitarian

And some researchers even created their own scales to test attitudes after failing badly using Cronbach's alpha to check consistency. (Caro, Pelkey and Grigione, 1994)

So there you have it. Some factor analysis. Some Cronbach's alpha. Many ways to quantify attitudes and that's what I'm doing, exploring the written literature, to find out what others have already done, how they did it, to get ideas how I can do mine. Many new terms and ways of thinking encountered so far. But greatly appreciate this opportunity to at least think with the mind of a Scientist.

References

Caro, T.M., Pelkey, N. and Grigione, M. 1994. Effects of Conservation Biology Education on Attitudes Toward Nature. Conservation Biology 8: 846-852

Hunter L.M. (2000) A Comparison of the Environmental Attitudes, Concern, and Behaviors of Native-Born and Foreign-Born U.S. Residents. Population and Environment: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 21:565-580

Kellert, S. R. (1993) Values and Perceptions of Invertebrates. Conservation Biology 7: 845-855

The plight of the Albizias

There was a recent slew of letters and articles about the Albizia trees in Singapore.

My earliest recollection of the Albizia trees was when Bingwen, the bird watcher, pointed them out to me in NJC. He told me these mature big trees are home to many of the birds in NJC. The cockatoos even build their nests in the hollow of the trunks of these trees. Ever since that, I have been mildly interested in these trees.

The Albizia (Paraserianthes falcataria) are extremely fast-growing, soft wood trees, introduced from Indonesia. According to Adrian Loo's letter to the Sunday Times, they have a "shallow root system and expansive crown" making them "susceptible to damage by wind" and hence dangerous to mankind and property, "especially during the current rainy season." As a result, the SLA and NParks had earmarked 63 Albizia trees in South Buona Vista Road to be cut down. One species had already taken the life of a dental assistant in May last year.

However, to the tree-huggers, this was a very painful thing for them. As these trees are big, beautiful, shady. It was also painful for the nature-lovers who stress that these trees provide many nationally endangered bird species such as the changeable hawk eagle and the grey-headed fish eagle with nesting sites and places to perch and roost outside the nature reserves. Therefore these Albizias play a very "important ecological role in the Singapore countryside."

The SLA and NParks responded to the public and eventually cut down the number of trees to be chopped down to 13. These trees were in more dangerous locations due to their "proximity to residential areas and roads, poor condition or leaning position."

It is fascinating that these non-native, very common trees, can elicit so much response from the public. And there are so many different view-points in which one can approach this topic. I was reading a journal entry about how researchers have found out that most U.S. citizens had limited ecological understanding of the environment and their concern for wildlife were largely confined to "attractive and emotionally appealing species." So could this be a reason why the tree huggers were hugging these Albizias rather than other more endangered species?

Or is it a knee-jerk reaction that comes with the news of their impending removal? Just like how if one is going to tear down a historically important architecture, there will also be an uproar by the public about it.

Are these people truely interested in the ecological role that these trees play?

For me, I'm thankful for this chance to view this subject more objectively, after reading about it from the papers, and hearing Prof Hugh Tan and his lab denizens, chatting about it. Prof Tan even received a phone call and a Christmas card from these Albizia-lovers, which I witnessed during my short time in the lab on Thursday, 3/1/08.

My natural instinct would be to protect all that would be going to be destroyed. But now, I would consider the appropriateness of that choice, based on the characteristics of the plant, and the ecological role that it plays, and also how best to do it such that the environment would not get a shock from the sudden removal of its residents.

And to add, the issue is very much about human lives as well. Consider a human life and a tree. I would very much prefer to redeem a human life for a tree, even if the tree is very rare and significant. I wouldn't want anyone to lose or risk losing a loved one because I insisted on the value of a tree. And I too am a lover of nature.

Are these Albizias? They were fallen along AYE towards Jurong.