Last modified: 2018-07-07
Abstract
The increasing development forces many building to be built on poor land condition. One of them is on peat soil area. Peat soil is known as a soil that has a high pore and water content so that the carrying capacity and compression ability is very low. Most of the peat soils are formed from the uncomplete decomposition of various plant materials in the marsh environment. In general, the constituent of plant cell walls on undecomposed peatland contain lignocellulosic complex, comprising cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. The biodegradation of the lignocellulosic complex is carried out by lignocellulolytic bacteria through the enzymatic process of lignin and cellulose degradation. This study aims to determine the fiber content as the result of decomposition of peat soil by lignocellulolytic bacteria on Kalimantan island and the viability of the bacteria on peat soil. Six bacterias were used respectively on this study are Bacillus sp. D1, Bacillus sp. D2, Bacillus sp. D3, Bacillus sp. U2, Pseudomonas sp. U3 and Bacillus sp. U4. Peat fiber decomposition was performed on a lab scale by adding lignocellulolytic bacteria into peat soil and observed the dry weight every week for 6 weeks incubation period. On the last week, viability of the bacteria was analyzed by total plate count.
During six weeks of incubation, the percentage of soil and fiber degradation increased, ranging from 2-10%, depend on each bacteria. These percentage of degraded soil and fiber on each bacteria were higher than the control and remain stable, but not more than 10% until the last week of incubation period (Table 1). The number of peat soil bacteria on the end of the incubation period ranging from 1.63 × 104 to 6.70 × 104 CFU/ml (Figure 1). The results of this study can be used as a preliminary study of peatland decomposition that subsequently can be developed through analyzing several factors to stabilize peat soil area.