Assessment of Chemical properties of Tropical Peatland Soil in Malaysia Oil Palm Plantation

Abstract

The Chemical assessment of the peatland in Oil palm plantation in South Selangor Peatland Swamp in Malaysia were evaluated in this study. Soil samples were obtained from fifteen different locations within the study area at three different depth of 0.5m, 1.5m and 2.5m in three replicate at each depth, using peat auger between March and July, 2013 during the secondary maximum rainfall. Parameters evaluated in Soil analysis included - Ph, Moisture content, carbon, nitrogen, Sulphur and heavy metals such as Zinc, Manganese, iron, copper, and Phosphorus. Heavy metals were determined using the double acid extraction method while carbon, nitrogen and Sulphur were determine using Trumac CNS analyzer. From the PH values, the soil close to the surface is more acidic with a mean PH value of 3.36 and a standard error of 0.15. The mean value of the moisture content were 363.54% with SEM of 27.01 and 154.56% with SEM of 54.64 at 0.5m and 2.5m depths respectively. Carbon has the highest value of 44.27% at 0.5m nitrogen, 0.36% Sulphur, 0.15% and heavy metals like manganese, iron and copper except zinc and phosphorous had their mean value either increasing or decreasing soil depth. Soil carbon was observed to decrease with depth unlike nitrogen and soil pH. All the soil parameters were observed to either decrease or increase with depth which show their partial distribution across the soil mass. This assessment of the tropical peatland soils chemistry has helped in appraising the important roles played by intact peatland in overall global environmental sustainability.