A review of the zooplankton in Singapore waters

24 pages, 1 figure, 2 tablesThe island of Singapore is located between 1°09'N¿1°29'N and 103°38'E¿104°06'E at the confluence of the Malacca Straits and the South China Sea. To date, both the marine and freshwater zooplanktons of this area are poorly studied, and availability of taxonomic identification is scarce. Moreover, most of the studies were published between the 1950s to the beginning of the 1970s. The available data are mainly qualitative, with only a few studies on zooplankton biology and ecology. Here, the literature on zooplankton communities in Singapore waters is reviewed in order to provide a baseline for future zooplankton surveys, and to better understand the aquatic ecosystems of this area. Also included are recent data obtained from a one-year plankton monitoring in 2012 from two marine stations in Singapore. The temporal variation of the plankton groups was observed in the study to be similar to what was described in some works from the 1970s. The species richness increased in these more recent studies, probably due to changes in the sampling and preservation methods. Because of these changes, comparing between data-sets is challenging; however, similarities in species richness and seasonality between a recent study and previous data-sets were evident. Finally, it is argued that continuous marine plankton monitoring would be an asset for Singapore and the regionThe authors would like to thanks the National Parks of Singapore, the DHI-NTU Research Centre for the financial support of project MadeInPlankton, where the present study is framed. The work was also supported by Elite Forsk grants nb 10-093759 and 10-094773 from the Danish Agency for Science Technology and Innovation to GD, and by project PROTOS (CTM2009-08783) from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation to ACPeer Reviewe

Environmental screening of electrode materials for a rechargeable aluminum battery with an AlCl3/EMIMCl electrolyte

Recently, rechargeable aluminum batteries have received much attention due to their low cost, easy operation, and high safety. As the research into rechargeable aluminum batteries with a room-temperature ionic liquid electrolyte is relatively new, research efforts have focused on finding suitable electrode materials. An understanding of the environmental aspects of electrode materials is essential to make informed and conscious decisions in aluminum battery development. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the relative environmental performance of electrode material candidates for rechargeable aluminum batteries with an AlCl3/EMIMCl (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride) room-temperature ionic liquid electrolyte. To this end, we used a lifecycle environmental screening framework to evaluate 12 candidate electrode materials. We found that all of the studied materials are associated with one or more drawbacks and therefore do not represent a “silver bullet” for the aluminum battery. Even so, some materials appeared more promising than others did. We also found that aluminum battery technology is likely to face some of the same environmental challenges as Li-ion technology but also offers an opportunity to avoid others. The insights provided here can aid aluminum battery development in an environmentally sustainable direction