International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract—Indonesia, especially Riau Province has struggled with forest fire since 1997 which causes degradation of peat soil. Nowadays, peat soil in the Bengkalis District, Riau Province, has been partially degraded by repeated fires and land clearing so that the fertility decline. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the fertility of peat land. The aim of this research was to study the effect of the presence of the termite nest to the ecosystem degraded peat lands in the village of Tanjung Leban, Bengkalis Regency. Parameters measured were the content of ammonium and nitrate ions in soil samples around the termite nests using Auto-analyzer. The results of analysis of 10 termite nests showed that the ion content of NH4 + (H2O), NH4 + (KCl), and NO3 (H2O and KCl) found in soil samples S2, S8 and S10. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the termite nests found in this study site in general no significant impact on the increase of nitrogen in the soil using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Duncan test at α = 0.05.

Index Terms—Ammonium, auto-analyzer, nitrate, peat, termites.

Sofia Anita and T. Ariful Amri are with Chemistry Dept. University of Riau, Indonesia (e-mail: sofiaanita94@ gmail.com, t.ariful.amri@ lecturer.unri.ac.id).
Fransisca was with the University of Riau, Indonesia (e-mail: Fransiscalin92@gmail.com).

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Cite: Sofia Anita, Fransisca, and Tengku Ariful Amri, "Determination of Ammonium and Nitrate Ions on Degraded Peat Soil by Termites Activities in Tanjung Leban, Bengkalis Regency," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 221-224, 2017.