Tropical Asia - Beach Shingle, Singapore by Eya P

Animal, vegetable or mineral? Taking a walk along a sandy beach, one might assume that what one is stepping on is mineral. Until one examines the shingle underfoot, then, does one realize that it comprises mostly parts of animals !

Singapore island is only 40km wide, so the nearest sea coast is at most 20min drive from anywhere. I often go to beaches to comb, photograph or sample shingle (shell and coral debris) from the intertidal zone of beaches. The ecological diversity of the inter-tidal zone habitat can be estimated from the comfort of one's home, by the many species of coral, mollusc and other marine invertebrates represented amongst the shingle fragments and micro-shells.

The nature and composition of such shingle gives an indication about the health of the marine environment. This particular shingle sample was taken from a beach just next to Changi Airport. Recent land reclamation on a nearby island could soon alter the composition of beach shingle. Hence this Gigapan is a snapshot of this habitat's health.

The sample was scanned on Canoscan 9000F flatbed document scanner at 1200dpi in two passes and stitched with GigaStitcher. As a reference, the dimensions of this entire scan area are A4 (8.5in x 11.7in or 216mmx297mm). The most common shell, the Button Shell (Umbonium vestiarium) typically ranges from 5-10mm in diameter.

Here's another sample taken from the same beach a year earlier. The samples are similar: gigapan.org/gigapans/80112/
by Eya Pesach