Part of Singapore's land area includes mangrove forests.
Singapore is an equatorial Asian country at the southern tip of the Malaysian peninsula, separated from the mainland by the Johore Strait. It consists of a main island and several smaller islands. Singapore has very little crop-suitable land but otherwise has abundant plant life. Much of the soil in Singapore is clay, although the origins and processes that formed the clay vary by area.
Recent Marine Alluvial
Alluvial soil is that which is deposited by water as it flows into or past an area. Ocean and river currents flowing into mangrove forests or swamps, which as of the 1990s covered only 0.5 percent of Singapore's land, constantly deposit sediment and debris to form an alluvial soil called recent marine alluvial. This is a mix of clay, sand and silt with some sandy topsoil in shallower areas. Singaporean mangrove swamp soil tends to be waterlogged, and deeper, blackish soils contain hydrogen sulfide that releases a prominent odor when disturbed.
Old Alluvium
Much of the eastern portion---and a small part of the northwestern tip of the main island of Singapore---contains a soil formation called Old Alluvium. Old alluvium itself is a type of alluvial soil that's been in the area long enough to start to compact, however, the term Old Alluvium in Singapore also refers to a specific location and formation. The soil in the Singaporean Old Alluvium is generally clay. A subset of Old Alluvium, "Kallang Formation" soil is a soft filler soil found as topsoil in areas of the Old Alluvium.
Residual
Residual soils are those that form from the erosion of rocks in the area, and residual soils make up a large part of Singapore's soil. Igneous and sedimentary rocks form two-thirds of Singapore's geology. The western third of the main island has an underlying sedimentary rock formation called the Jurong Formation, and the central portion has an igneous rock area called the Bukit Timah Formation. Erosion from these leads to residual soil deposits. Bukit Timah soil is granite-based, while Jurong soil contains more mudstone and sandstone debris. Both are clayey soils.
Actinomycete-Rich
The National University of Singapore reports that one of their research teams has uncovered a new strain of actinomycete---a bacteria that may have healing properties---in the soil on Pulau Ubin, an island off the northeast shore of the main island of Singapore. Actinomycetes exist in soils in other Asian countries such as Japan, but the Pulau Ubin strain is new. Associate Professor Nga Been Hen in the Department of Microbiology collected samples of the soil and isolated compounds produced by the bacteria that could have anti-tumor potential.
Tags: main island, bacteria that, Bukit Timah, formation called, mangrove forests
