Biodiversity assessment of spiders in Pulau Ubin and Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve.

Abstract

Over a four-month period, surveys were carried out to assess the biodiversity of spiders on Pulau Ubin and Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. From these sites, survey plots were selected

to include only freshwater, secondary rainforest and back mangrove habitats. In all, 738 spiders from 25 families, 69 genera and 106 species were obtained. These data were then

converted into a set of biodiversity indices that encompass richness, diversity and evenness of spider species at the various areas. Plots on Pulau Ubin generally showed higher levels of richness and diversity with the highest scoring the back mangrove habitat. It scored 11.625± 1.322 for richness and 2.2955± 0.099 on the diversity scale. The freshwater site in Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve scored the lowest, at 9.25± 0.674 for richness and 2.06± 0.074 for diversity. This survey has also discovered two species that could potentially be new records to Singapore. These specimens have been deposited at the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research at NUS for further taxonomic studies and verification. Our data could serve as a baseline for further biodiversity studies and would go well into the better understanding of spider ecology and diversity in Singapore.