Authors:
Norika Kato, Nagamitsu Maie, Lulie Melling, Sonoko D. BellingrathKimura, Haruo Tanaka, Masahiro Maeda, Zulhilmy Abdullah Mohd and Akira Watanabe
Book:
Proceedings of the 15th International Peat Congress
Venue:
Kuching
Keywords:
diversity, tropical-peat, vegetation
Documentfile:
ipc16p17-20a116kato.maie_.etal_.pdf
Summary:
SUMMARY
Tropical peat swamp forests (TPSFs) in Sarawak, Malaysia, consist of three major types of vegetation, namely mixed peat swamp (MPS), Alan Batu (A. Batu), and Alan Bunga (A. Bunga) forests, reflecting the variance in the groundwaterlevel and nutrient concentrations. Tropical peats developed under different vegetation are expected to have different physicochemical properties, which may lead to the different vulnerability to environmental change. However, TPSFs have been developed for oil palm plantation (OPP) irrespective of vegetation types. Sustainable management of OPP depends on the understanding of the variability in the physicochemical properties (or decomposition processes) of TP. Therefore, a variety of peat samples was collected from sapric, hemic, and fibric layers at MPS, A. Batu, and A. Bunga forests in Maludam National Park in Sarawak, and their physicochemical properties were investigated in terms of particle size distribution (PSD) (wet sieving)…