The Changes in Chemical and Physical Properties of Fibric Peat Pollowing Burning

B.H Saharjo,A.D Nurhayati

doi:10.29244/jitl.5.1.1-6

Abstract

Fire is still used until today for land preparation because it is cheap, easy and relatively quick to be done, meanwhilethe impact is still not much yet known especially for peat land Due to that reason the research especially on peat qlllJlilyfollowing burning is highly important in order to understand the performance of it in the term of sustainabilily.The research objective was to understand the performance of burned peat quality compared to the condition beforeburning atfibric peat especially in the land preparation area using fire belong to the shifting cultivator. The site was locatedin the Pelalawan district, Riau province, Indonesia, during the dry season in the year 2001. To reach the research objective 2plots of each 400 m) (20 m x 20 m) were established The results of the research shown that soon following burning, chemical properties of burned peat was increased significantly, while after one month part of them tended to decrease such as P, K, and base saturation. Three months after burning most of the chemical properties decreased while at six month a few of them was still increased such as P, Na and CEC. This research shown that the increasing of ash afterburning was a temporary effect and others negative impact is continued

Highlights

The immediate effeet of a forest fire is to convert vegetation to nutrient rich ash, which can nourish the regrowing of a new forest
High flame temperature resulted during burning that varied from 875 DC to 900 DC at peat surface due to high fuel load available in the site that varied from 61.56 to 62.67 ton ha· l. This fuel load consist of litter varied from 28.5 to 33 ton ha· 1 and branches from 29.67 to 33 ton/ha when burned will produce high potency of ash and charcoal left in peat surface which will affect the quality of peat burned both chemical and physical properties
No peat burned found at significant depth following burning was an indicator of high moisture content of peat at surface level, even though high fire intensity resulted during burning that varied from 5300.28 to 6721.24 kW m· l, which has direct effect of burning the materials both dead and live found on the peat surface

Summary

Introduction

The immediate effeet of a forest fire is to convert vegetation to nutrient rich ash, which can nourish the regrowing of a new forest. Due to the fires is too hot, the soil surface hardens, making it difficult for seeds to sprout, and causing the ash to be washed away by the first heavy rain (Wirawan, 1993). Intense bums and subsequent soil erosion result in the loss of other soil constituents that facilitate vegetation re-growth, such as organic matter, soil organisms that accelerate plant matter decomposition, and special fungi that assist key tree species to absorb nutrients. Soil erosion does not occur in the aftermath of peat swamp fires, but ash and other fire residues are washed away. The surface level of burned peat is lowered by combustion losses

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion