| Title | Soil Phosphorus Availability after Slash-And-Burn Fires of Different Intensities in Rubber Agroforests in Sumatra, Indonesia. |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2002 |
| Authors | Ketterings, Q.; van Noordwijk, M.; Bigham, J. |
| ContactAuthor | asb@cgiar.org; qmk2@cornell.edu |
| Journal | Agricultural, Ecosystems and Environment |
| Volume | 92 |
| Pagination | 37-48 |
| Call Number | JA0182-04 |
| Keywords | Indonesia, Oxisols, Phosphorus, Rubber agroforestry, slash-and-burn |
| Abstract | Land clearing fires in Sumatra, Indonesia, caused enormous environmental problems for southeast Asia in 1997, but rubber
farmers as well as large rubber and oil palm plantation owners continued to slash-and-burn due to the lack of an alternative
that is equally quick, cheap, and capable of improving soil fertility. A partial alternative may be found in the reduction of the
fuel load before the burn by harvesting and selling a larger fraction of the wood and, thus, changing the intensity of the fire
and reducing particulate and greenhouse gas emission. An adequate phosphorus (P) supply is critical to crop production in
Sumatra. Thus, it is important to understand the effects of such a reduction in fire intensity on crop P availability. Field and
laboratory experiments were conducted to: (1) determine P sorption capacities and affinity constants for a forest soil exposed
to different fire intensities in a controlled oven experiment (heat effects only); (2) compare the sorption characteristics of
oven-burned soil with field-burned soil (heat and ash addition effects); and (3) determine the effects of fire-induced changes
in soil properties on indices of P availability. |
| URL | http://www.worldagroforestry.org/sea/publication?do=view_pub_detail&pub_no=JA0182-04 |
