Abstract
In order to clarify the characteristics and stocks of soil nutrient under various land use types in a super wet tropical rain forest in Padang, West Sumatera. We investigated the nutrient characteristics of the several samples of soils under different land use such as cacao plantation (CP), cinnamon plantation (CMP), mixed garden (MG), and primary forest (PF) in Gadut Mountain, Padang, West Sumatra. The soil nutrient characteristics varied among the different land use types. The range of nutrient characteristics under four land use type were 4.60 – 7.01% and 0.4 – 0.60 % for total carbon and total nitrogen and were 9.80 – 24.59, 0.68 – 2.07 and 0.30 – 0.8 mol (+) kg-1 for Ca, Mg and K, respectively. The highest content of soil nutrient status was found under MG, while the lowest soil nutrient status found at PF. This result indicated that the MG with various vegetation types might contribute in enriching the organic matter in soil. The soil nutrient content such as TN, exchangeable Ca, Mg and K tended to decrease with soil depth of each land use type. However, the sodium (Na) content in soil tended to increase within the soil depth. These were presumably due to evaporation of Na at surface soil within the study area was low. These study results showed that spatially the nutrient properties of soil were closely related to the land use type and management practices. It was suggested that the nutrient characteristics of soils under various land use types in a super wet tropical rain forest region, in Gadut Mountain, Padang West Sumatra were significantly affected by the land use types and land coverage.
Highlights
The study on the change of soil characteristics as a result of land use change is an essential matter in studying agroecosystem alteration and the persistence of land productivity
Soil in wet tropical area is categorized as putrefied that has low fertility and has low input farming system. The fertility of this soil tremendously depends on the condition of organic matter from various vegetations that grow on the land
This research is conducted in a foothills of Gadut Mountain, West Sumatra
Summary
The study on the change of soil characteristics as a result of land use change is an essential matter in studying agroecosystem alteration and the persistence of land productivity. Super wet tropical rain forest of West Sumatra that located in Gadut Mountain is a research field for forest ecology and soil study that under cooperation between Andalas University and some Japanese researchers which consolidated in Field Biology Research Project (FBRT) since 1984. This tropical forest area has a heavy rainfall that ever reached 5000 mm per year in 1986 (Wakasutki et al 1986), has various vegetations and a dense and secured canopy. Some studies about characteristics and nutrient cycle in related to various types of vegetation and soil in natural super wet tropical rain forest ecosystem was Faculty of Agriculture, Andalas University, Limau Manis, Padang, Indonesia 2 Faculty of Life and Environmental Science, Shimane University, Nishikawatsu-cho, Matsue 690-8504, Japan 3 Faculty of Agriculture, Kinki University, Nakamachi 3327-204 Nara, Japan J Trop Soils, Vol 15, No 1, 2010: 55-62 ISSN 0852-257X
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