Soils under Enrichment Planting : Assessing Soil Properties of Reforestation Sites at Gunung Apeng Forest Reserve

• Main Author: Sonia, Anak Singan
• Format: Final Year Project Report
• Language: English; English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) 2015
• Subjects: S Agriculture (General); SD Forestry
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/27816/1/Soils%20under%20Enrichment%20Planting%28SONIA%29%2024pgs.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/27816/4/SONIA%20ANAK%20SINGA.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/27816/

Reforestation is a reestablishment or replanting of trees and understored the plants at a site immediately after the disturbances that are cause by deforestation. The importance of reforestation is to reduce the amount of soil erosion and compaction, to minimize the exposure of the mineral soils and to help in improving the soil quality as well as to sustain soil fertility. Recently, reforestations mainly focus on mono planting species as dipterocarps species because it is the most dominant forest species. Besides, more nutrients can be found in mono planting species compared to mixed planting species. However, some study conducted had stated that the growth performance at mix planting species was better and more productive than mono planting species. Hence, questioning whether soil properties plays an important factor in determining the growth and survival rate of trees planted at different planting technique. Therefore, the main objective for this study is to identify the soil properties under reforestation sites with different planting technique (mono and mix planting). The study was conducted at Gunung Apeng Forest Reserve, Serian, Sarawak. Soil sampling was conducted at depth of 0 – 10 cm and 30 – 40 cm for both mono and mix plots respectively. The chemical and physical properties of the soil were analyzed and that include bulk density, soil texture, soil hardness, soil pH and acidity, soil organic matter (SOM), electric conductivity (EC), total nitrogen (N), and available phosphorus (AVP). The analysis was conducted via Student’s t-test. The result shows that both mono and mix planting species are similar in term of soil morphology and some physicochemical properties. Hence, the information on the soil properties at both planting plots is important in order to determine the suitability of the tree species planted for reforestation purposes. However, further investigation focusing on selected soil properties is necessary in order to determine the ideal planting technique used for different type of tree species.