Vol. 3, Issue 4, Part F (2017)

Abstract
Decrease of tropical rainforests affects global warming and has attracted much attention. The increase of world population results in more forestland being converted into agricultural land and other land uses in order to fulfil the demands. Theoretically, the conversion of forest to other land uses will release more carbon. Many studies have reported the carbon storage of temperate forests and other land uses but little is known about the trend of soil carbon storage in Malaysia, especially Kelantan. Thus, the objectives of this study were to: (i) quantify soil organic matter, soil total carbon, soil total nitrogen, humic acids, and stable carbon between a secondary forest and a banana plantation in University Malaysia Kelantan Jeli Campus, and (ii) compare the soil carbon storage between secondary forest and banana plantation land in University Malaysia Kelantan Jeli Campus. Ten soil samples were collected from the secondary forest and banana plantation, respectively at the soil depth of 0-25 cm and 25-50 cm using a soil auger. The size of each experimental plot was 30 m x 40 m. The bulk densities of these depths were determined using the metal corings. The bulk density data was used to quantify the soil total organic matter, total carbon, total nitrogen, humic acids, and stable carbon on per hectare basis. There was no significant difference in the amount of soil stable carbon between the secondary forest and banana plantation at 0-25 cm soil depth. This indicates the conversion of secondary forest to banana plantation did not exert any significant changes on C storage in the soil. This could be due to less disturbance on the soil during the cultivation and management process of the banana plantation. Since the stable carbon derived from humic acid is more stable, it is more realistic to quantify the amount of carbon storage in the soil.