Abstract
Tropical peatland is a potential land resource for crop production to
supply food and energy sources to increasing population. Although sago
palm (Metroxylon sagu Rottb.) is a potential starch crop suited to this
purpose, prefer control of groundwater level and fertilizer application
should be done to maintain the high starch productivity.
As it is also
important to estimate the impact of sago palm cultivation on the
environment from the view point of the sustainability, we investigated
temporal changes in the chemical properties of drainage water and soil
in a sago palm plantation in Indonesia.
Analysis of canal water from blocks with different palm
ages during a 2-year period suggested small increases in Ca, K, and Mg
concentrations with time (up to 8 years). No time-dependent changes were
observed in the concentrations of other nutritional/toxic elements,
although the larger concentration in groundwater below sago palm than in
canal water was observed for fertilizer components including B, Ca, P,
and Zn. Although large portions of Al, Fe, and Zn in canal water were
interacted with dissolved organic C (DOC), the leaching of DOC did not
vary with the development of palm growth. Contents of nutritional
elements were generally similar among soils at 1, 3, and 5 m away from a
palm, among soils at 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5 m depths, and between soils in
sago palm block and adjacent secondary forest, regardless of plant age.
Thus, the sago palm cultivation with fertilizer and groundwater level
control did not induce notable deterioration of soil and water
qualities.
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