Abstract:
The demand for vegetables oils especially palm oil has increased drastically. However, rapid
development in oil palm industry leads to many issues, especially regarding sustainable
development of palm oil cultivation. Soil algae play an important role in the maintenance of soil
fertility as well as recycling of soil organic matter. Their taxonomic knowledge in tropical soils
is still scarce, especially in oil palm plantation. Hence, this study was performed to access the
heterogeneity of soil algae community structure in response to oil palm plantation activities and
compare with nearby secondary forest by using 18S-rDNA PCR-DGGE. Sampling was carried
out in 3-years old oil palm plantation at Sungai Asap, Sarawak and nearby disturbed and
undisturbed secondary forest. Significant differences in soil chemical properties and soil texture
of oil palm plantation were evident: soil organic C, total N and CEC were significantly
decreased. Oil palm plantation showed highest richness and diversity of the green algae,
followed by disturbed secondary forest and undisturbed secondary forest. Three main clusters
were obtained through UPGMA dendrogram generated with dice coefficient, one cluster from
each sampling sites, except for some oil palm plantation sampling points were in the same cluster as with the disturbed secondary forest. Collectively, these results revealed that disturbance by
both human or agricultural activity altered soil algae richness and diversity.
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