BUKU ABSTRAK - Universiti Putra Malaysia

Forestry & Environment
Fungal Diversity in Wounded Stems of Aquilaria malaccensis
Dr. Rozi Mohamed
Jong Phai Lee and Mohammed Syazwan Zali
Faculty of Forestry, University Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
+603-8946 7183; rozimohd@putra.upm.edu.my
Aquilaria malaccensis is a tropical tree which produces agarwood in its trunk often after being wounded
and attacked by pathogens or insects. Fungi are generally viewed as the main microbial component responsible
for agarwood formation. In this study, isolation of fungi from agarwood in damaged trees was carried out.
Culture morphology and microscopic characteristics plus PCR amplification of the internal transcribed spacer
(ITS) region from the fungal isolates as well as wood samples,were used to identify the fungal community
composition of wounded A. malaccensis trees from a natural forest in West Malaysia. Conventional culture
methodology revealed Cunninghamella, Curvularia, Fusarium and Trichoderma species as members of the
agarwood community. Analysis of genomic DNA confirmed the identifications. When wood samples were used
directly in PCR, an additional Lasiodiplodia species was identified. Neighbor-joining trees were constructed to
examine the relationships between the isolates sequence data and reference sequences in GenBank. Five distinct
clades resulted, supported with high bootstrap values, indicating the presence of five distinct taxa. The wounded
trunks of A. malaccensis in the natural environment harbor multiple fungal taxa that exist in a complex system as
a whole or in succession leading to agarwood production in the tree trunk.
Keywords: Agarwood, aquilaria malaccensis, fungi, phylogeny, production, wound
Effect of Logging Operations on Soil Carbon Storage of a Tropical Peat Swamp
Forest in Sarawak
Dr. Seca Gandaseca
Anton Eko Satrio, Osumanu Haruna Ahmed and Nik Muhamad Ab. Majid
Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences, University Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
+603-8685 5473; secags@yahoo.com
It is important to investigate the severity of degradation of peat swamp forest caused by logging operation
in terms of its function as carbon storage. The peat soil was sampled randomly using a peat auger to a depth of
15 cm. Soil sampling ware conducted before and after logging (one year later). Soil sampling was conducted
on two different plots under different skidding systems to compare the soil carbon storage between kuda-kuda
and excavator systems. Unpaired t-test was used to compare soil carbon storage under the two systems. The
humic acid extraction was done and soil carbon storage values obtained by calculation. The calculation of soil
carbon storage was done by the bulk density method. There was more unstable carbon on logged peat swamp
forest. Afterwards, that high unstable carbon formed on logged peat swamp forest was converted into humic acid
and stable carbon through humification processes. However, the similarity of stable carbon of the logged peat
swamp forest with stable carbon of undisturbed peat swamp forest indicated an ineffectiveness humification of
logged peat swamp forest. Under kuda-kuda skidding system, unstable carbon seemed to be preserved better and
this was because of the better carbon storage. After the peat swamp forest was logged, humification processes
were strongly maintained, but it become slow and ineffective, hence unstable carbon decomposed more instead
of it being preserved as stable carbon. The skidding systems altered the unstable carbon. The unstable carbon
decomposed more under excavator skidding system, but inversely under kuda-kuda skidding system.
Keywords: Peat swamp forest, logging operation, skidding system, humification, soil carbon storage
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