Reflection:D

The trip to Bukit timah nature reserve was so fun and interesting. I understood more about tropical rainforest :D

When we arrived at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, We can spot many monkeys around us! It was kind off scary as we were all afraid of them...But the monkeys are very adorable especially their fluffy cheeks!

Before we started our grueling journey, we went to the visitor centre. In the visitor centre, we saw the differnt seed dispersal methods and certain animals in the nature reserve. There was also a pie chart on the uses of land in singapore. After 15 minutes, we began trekking.

We started of by walking up an extremely steep slope, which ms lim said, was the toughest part of the journey. While walking up the slope, there were many examples of an emergent, canopy and undergrowth. Not only that, there were many lianas and epiphytes there as well. We saw the buttress roots of a very buge tree which was so much taller than Ms lim. This tree is part of the emergent which receives the maximum amount if sunlight.

As the emergent grow closely together, there was hardly any sunlight reaching the canopy thus the lianas have their own way to receive maximum sunlight. They coil on trees and grow upwards. Usually, lianas coil on more than one tree. They will choose to grow on a taller tree so as to receive more sunlight.

 

After lots of complaining and perspiration, we overcomed the steep slope. The rest of the journey was easier than the start as the slope was much gentler. Along the way, we saw some fungus growing on a decay trunk and a tree that has been chopped down. We even saw water bodies in the bukit timah nature reserve! When it rains in the nature reserve, water drips to the undergrowth with the help of the drip tip of the leaf.

At last, we reached the summit. We found out that the leaves at the top of the trees were smaller than the ones below but we didnt know why... We were supposed to draw a sketch of 3 leaves that can be found in the bukit timah nature reserve and label the parts of the leave. Sketching is useful when we do not have a camera with us. Even though we didnt expect to draw leaves when we reach the summit, it was quite an enjoyable experience! We had a break and went back down.

We took a different route this time but it was equally tough as we still have to walk down the steep slope. We found out that walking backwards down the steep slope was much easier but dangerous at the same time. We returned to the visitor centre to take a break while waiting for the bus to come. There were lots of monkeys and other animals!

Ms lim brought us to a playground in the bukit timah nature reserve where we had so much fun!We were all joking around and everyone went so crazy. Even Kimberley imitated a monkey! We also took a 2 minutes walk and we saw a magnificent scene! I didnt know that such a place exist in singapore...

Overall, I fell that it was a fun filled experience and we were able to understand more about tropical rainforest.

Reflection for Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

The humid weather of Singapore allows only one type of rainforest to survive in its heat and humidity. The tropical rainforest.

The trip to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve was interesting as well as informative as it had much to offer, what with the vast greenery and the natural growth of plants and not to mention that monkeys that lived and roamed in the forest.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by monkeys freely swinging from tree to tree and even walking on the sidewalk. The picture above shows one of the monkeys on the tree, "hugging" the branch. The fact that the monkeys are allowed to roam freely really shows that the forest rangers truly respected nature and also, the animals that lived in the tropical rainforest, like all of us should.

We began our trek up Bukit Timah hill, and the first part of the hill was extremely steep and difficult to conquer. Before I even reached the top of the hill, I was already panting... This is the photo that Miss Lim gladly modeled for us, showing how tall the trees could grow up to. The place she was standing at was not even at the roots of the tree, but in fact, higher!
The leaves of the tall trees formed the emergent, the highest part of the rainforest.

The things a plant would do to survive is truly amazing. Take Lianas for example. The photo above shows the liana coiling itself around a tree, and then attaching itself to a higher tree just to reach the emergent to obtain sunlight. This is one of the many lianas we saw in the nature reserve.

Soon, the path became more gradual, and it was easier to walk up the hill. We saw buttress roots of the tree, holding up the weights of the humongous trees, more lianas, and even some tiny mushrooms growing on decaying tree trunk!

Bukit Timah Nature Reserve has so much to offer, so many different plant species and their fight against each other for survival. This picture shows the sparse undergrowth of the rainforest and the start of the canopy layer.

At the top of the hill, there wasn't much of a view, but we were all shocked. Our walk passed so quickly we didn't even realize that we had already conquered climbing the hill! A large boulder sat on top of the hill, with the height of the hill carved onto it. The height of the hill was only 163.63m! It was then I realized that climbing the hill wasn't so bad after all! I thought it would take ages to conquer it, but the fact that we did it in such a short period of time amazed me.

Then we were asked to sketch 3 different leaves. So I took 3 pictures of different types of leaves, with my finger as a gauge for the length and size of the leaves. Soon, we got hungry and after we finished sketching the leaves, we began to snack on the food we brought to satisfy our hunger.

Finally, we began our trek down through a different path to see a different view. The "lake" was extremely beautiful, although we could only see it through the thick foliage of leaves. However we saw a clear view of it when we walked through another path that led us to a playground, where further up was a crystal clear view of the "lake".

We ended up playing at the playground while waiting for the bus to arrive, it was indeed a fun-filled experience. I felt like I was relieving my childhood days.

We saw many monkeys and one of them even stole Nicole Mui's apple! Here's a picture of one that I managed to snap. Isn't it adorable?

Besides monkeys, we saw lizards on the grass and another on a tree. Both were of different species and it was just fascinating. Before we left, we managed to spot a monkey and her baby on a tree! It was such a rare sight and the baby monkey was simply adorable.

However, all good things have to come to an end... We left Bukit Timah Nature Reserve with fond memories and more knowledge that we wouldn't forget in the years to come.

~Kimberley Lim~

Reflection of the Bukit Timah Reserve Trip

At Bukit Timah, there were many types of vegetation ranging from the emergent layer, to the canopy layer and to the undergrowth layer. These type of trees, as we learnt in the Natural Vegetation topic, are found in a topical rainforests. As Singapore has a tropical climate, the Bukit Timah reserve is a tropical rainforest. We also saw trees with Buttress roots to support their tremendous weight and many lianas. The lianas would cling onto a tree and connect to another tree that is taller. On some logs, we spotted tiny white mushrooms growing.
The Bukit Timah reserve was not only teeming with the life of plants, but with the life of animals too. Right before we 'hiked' up the very steep slope, we could see monkeys clinging onto trees and swinging from one tree to another. Even though the 'hike' up the very steep slope was tough, it was worth the effort as we were able to see so many different types of trees right before our eyes.
When we reached the summit of the hill, we were shocked to see what was engraved on a boulder. On it, we read the words "Ht. 163.63m". We thought we had walked much more than that distance. After recovering from our little 'shock', we were told to draw three different types of leaves. Most of us took pictures of the leaves and sat down to draw it so that we could rest at the same time.
We went back down after we had finished resting. But instead of sticking around the entrance and waiting for the bus to pick us up, we walked another route which led us to a playground. If we walked futher in, we would see a breath-taking scene. That was exactly how I felt when I saw the lake. The view was awesome and I was awestruck.
However, all good things must come to an end and soon we were on our way back to school. Overall, I think this trip was worth it as I was not only able to bond with my classmates and teachers, but was able to leanrt more about tropical rainforests.

~Nicole Mui~

Geography

We have learnt a total of 8topics in a year's work.The human and physical environment, topographical maps,interpreting photographs,landforms of the earth,rocks of the Earth,rivers and environment,weather and climate and lastly, natural vegetation. However, I'm just going to talk about natural vegetation. All the plants growing on the Earths surface can be grouped into 3 major types: Forests, grasslands and desert vegetation. Forests can be split into 3 different types of forests;tropical rainforests,temperate deciduous forests and temperate coniferous forests.
In tropical rainforests,there is high rainfall throughout the year ranging from 1000 to 2000mm and a temperature range of 20 to 30 degrees. Tropical rainforests can be found in the amazon basin in south America. Trees in tropical rainforests are evergreen. The leaves of the trees also have drip tip to allow water to flow off more easily. In addition, many trees also have broad leaf surfaces to ab sob as much sunlight as possible.
The trees and other plants grow very close to one another in the tropical rainforests. Therefore making the forests dense. There are 3 distinct layer in a tropical rainforests. The 3 layers are the undergrowth,canopy and the emergent. The undergrowth is mainly made up of shrubs,grasses,ferns,mosses and fungi. Plant growth is sparse because very little sunlight reaches this layer.
At the canopy are trees reaching 15-30m. Crowns of trees interlock to form a continuous leaf cover[or canopy]. The tropical rainforests is very cool,moist and shady because the canopy blocks out 70 to 100 percent of sunlight. Lianas are woody climbing plants that hang down from tree branches in loops. Epiphyes are plants that grow on other trees in order to receive more sunlight.
At the emergent layer are very tall trees, growing up to 40 -50 m high.These trees grow to such height to receive more sunlight. Tropical rainforests trees usually have buttress roots to support their tall heavy trunks.
-Samantha Lye-