On the plankton succession off Changi Point / Rolando Balicanta Edra

Includes bibliographical references

The study of marine plankton of Singapore waters was pioneered ,by Tham (1950, 1952, 1953). He studied simultaneously the food and feeding relationships of the fishes, the physical chemical and biolooical characteristics of Singapore Straits, and established a tentative plankton calendar. Later, Wickstead (1958) gave an account of Singapore Straits’ larger zooplankton. Recently the estuarine and marine plankton of Singapore waters have been the subject of some academic exercises, i.e., diploma project reports, theses and dissertations, a few publications. The only academic exercises which were in a series of plankton studies appear to be those of Chua (1967) and Khoo (1967) who, in their dissertations, accounted for the hydro-biological conditions of an estuary (Ponggol River), and the Serangoon Harbor in Johore Straits, respectively. Tham, Khoo and Chua (1970) presented an overall comparison of their studies of the hydro-biological conditions of Singapore estuarine and marine waters, i.e., the effect of Singapore Straits to Johore Straits, in turn, to Ponggol estuary and vice versa. Lately Tham et al. (1972) discussed the distribution of plankton in the Singapore Straits from April 1968 to March 1969 m comparison with the previous studies. The present study deals with the sequence of plankton components in relation to hydrological and meteorological events off Changi Point. Since all marine life depends ultimately on the association of phytoplankton, special attention was given to the succession of the species, genera or groups to get a more or less accurate assessment of the coastal fishery environmental conditions in the area.

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