Characterization and classification of peat soils in Malaysia

Authors:
As'ari Hassan, Frederick Haili Teck, Ngab Dollah Salam, Elizabeth Malangkig, Roslan Mahali, Noranizam Mohd Sahil, Wan Mohd Rusydan Wan Ibrahim and COMSSSEM4

Book:
Proceedings of the 15th International Peat Congress

Venue:
Kuching

Keywords:
malaysia, peatland, sphagnum

Documentfile:
ipc16p474-475a354hassan.teck_.etal_.pdf

Summary:

SUMMARY

Peatland in Malaysia covers approximately 2.76 million hectares of which 796,782 hectares are in Peninsular Malaysia (Law and Selvadurai, 1968), 200,600 hectares in Sabah (Acres et al, 1975) and 1,765,547 hectares in Sarawak (Melling, 1999). Tropical  peat differs from temperate peat due to differences in climate and the plant species that decomposed to form the peat layer. Temperate peats are mainly derived from remains of low growing plants such as Sphagnum spp., Gramineae and Cyperaceae while tropical peats are formed from tropical forest species (Paramananthan, 2016). The types of organic soil material (OSM) in Malaysia are mostly fibric and hemic. The thickness of OSM may reach to over 20.7 m as found in Loagan Bunut National Park (Melling et al., 2006)…