MARINE MOLLUSCAN COMMUNITIES THROUGH HOLOCENE REEFS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

The developmental history of Singapore’s reefs is unclear. Sea level rose through the early Holocene (~10,000 years ago) resulting in the flooding of low-lying land areas around Singapore and providing new marine space for reef establishment. As such, local reefs are expected to have developed relatively recently and thus possible to reconstruct with paleoecological techniques. Marine molluscs are the second largest group of calcifying reef organisms, and their shells are commonly found in the paleontological records. Molluscan communities can provide indications regarding past environmental conditions based on their abundance, richness, diversity, and ecology. Using percussion reef coring and radiocarbon dating techniques, Holocene molluscan communities were extracted and characterised to help reconstruct pass reef environments base on taxon composition and their functional traits. This thesis represents the first analysis of Singapore’s Holocene molluscan communities and their correlation to reef development of five existing reefs in the Southern Islands of Singapore.