Judul: Pengaruh Kedalaman Muka Air Tanah dan Dosis Terak Baja terhadap Hidrofobisitas Tanah Gambut, Emisi Karbon, dan Produksi Kelapa Sawit
Abstrak: Development of oil palm plantation requires drainage to support growth and production of the oil palm. The excessive drainage would cause the peat dryness of as well as hydrophobicity and thus decreasing its capacity to retent water, soil infiltration, surface erossion. It can limit oil palm growth. The application of water management and soil amandment must be performed to avoid the decrease of peat soil quality and to improve the productivity of oil palm. This series research was designed to: 1) evaluate the peat soil hydrophobicity under oil palm plantation area, 2) study the effect of the ground water level depth and stell slag dose on the peat soil hydrophobicity and other soil physical changes, 3) study the effect of the ground water level depth and the steel slag dose on CO2 emission from peat soil, and 4) study the effect of ground water level depth and steel slag dose on the growth and production of oil palm. The first study has utilized sapric and hemic peat soil samples taken from the 6-year Panai Jaya Oil Palm Plantation (PAJ) and the 20-year Meranti Paham Oil Palm Plantation (MEP). Peat soil samples were heated at a temperature of 50°C with a time interval and the effects on hydrophobicity were recorded. Hydrophobicity of the peat soil was evaluated by Water Drop Penetration Time (WDPT) method. After the hydrophobicity of all peat soil samples had been observed, a number of soil properties, including soil water content (SWC), total acidity, carboxylic content (COOH) and phenolic-OH were then analyzed. Critical water content (CWC) of the peat soil. The point at which hydrophobicity occurred, was determined using exponential relationship between soil water content and the probability of the occurrence of soil hydrophobicity, the point at which the probability of the occurrence of hydrophobicity was between 60% and 80%. Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR) spectrometer was used to evaluate peat soil hydrophobicity by knowing the functional groups in peat soil. The second experiment was carried out in laboratory by application of various steel slag level (0; 7.17; 14.81; dan 22.44 g pot-1) on two peat type (sapric dan hemic) with two soil moisture conditions including wet and dry (hydrophobic). Peat soil samples that has been added with steel slag incubation for 60 days and observation of soil properties, FTIR analysis, and wettability by WDPT method. The field experiment was carried out in 6 years-oil palm block of PAJ. Research plots was designed using a split plot design with three replications. Plots treated with three treatments of ground water level (MAT-1, MAT-2, and MAT-3) as main plots and four level of steel slag application (0; 3.15; 6.51; 9.86 kg pohon-1) as a subplot. MAT-1 is ground water level (GWL) at depths of 30-50 cm, MAT-2 is GWL at depths of 60-75 cm, and WLM-3 is GWL at depths 70-90 cm below the soil surface. The research observation consists actual soil water content, actual v hydrophobicity, oil palm growth and production, subsidence, and accumulation of heavy metals in fruit. The results shown that hydrophobicity of peat soil in this study was
Keyword: CO2 emission, hydrophobicity, oil palm, peat soil, steel slag

Judul: Variability of Some Physical and Chemical Properties of Peat  Based on Distance from River and Peat Depth
Abstrak: Pemanfaatan lahan gambut menjadi lahan pertanian harus dilakukan dengan baik dan bijaksana. Hal ini disebabkan banyaknya faktor penghambat yang dimiliki oleh lahan gambut seperti produktivitas lahan yang semakin rendah seiring dengan bertambahnya ketebalan gambut dan rendahnya kesuburan alami tanah. Sifat fisik dan kimia gambut sangat penting untuk pengelolaan produktivitas tanaman dalam kaitannya dengan jarak dari sungai dan kedalaman pengambilan contoh. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mempelajari hubungan antara sifat fisik dan kimia gambut di perkebunan kelapa sawit di Kabupaten Labuhanbatu, Provinsi Sumatera Utara berdasarkan jarak dari sungai dan kedalaman. Pengambilan contoh gambut dilakukan pada transek hidrosekuen dari Sungai Leidong sebanyak 10 titik contoh. Setiap titik berjarak sekitar 300 m dari titik lainnya dan pada setiap titik diambil contoh gambut pada kedalaman 0-50 cm dan 50-100 cm. Analisis bobot isi, porositas, pH, C-organik, KTK, N-total, P-tersedia, P-total dilakukan pada setiap contoh. Perbedaan jarak dari sungai tidak berpengaruh pada bobot isi dan porositas gambut. Sebaliknya, contoh yang lebih dalam nyata memiliki bobot isi yang lebih rendah dan porositas yang lebih tinggi. Jarak yang jauh dari sungai nyata memiliki pH yang lebih rendah. Jarak dari sungai dan kedalaman contoh tidak mempengaruhi C-organik, KTK, N-total, P-total, dan P-tersedia gambut. Studi ini menunjukkan bahwa perlu dilakukan penelitian lebih detil untuk mengetahui pengaruh jarak dari sungai, kedalaman gambut dan pengaruh antropogenik terhadap pengelolaan produktivitas gambut., The utilization of peatlands for agriculture must be coducted properly and wisely. This is due to the many inhibiting factors possessed by peatlands such as lower land productivity along with increasing peat thickness and low natural fertility of the soil. The study of peat physical and chemical properties are very important for management of plant productivity in relation with the distance from the rivers and depth of samples. This study was aimed to examine the relationship between physical and chemical properties of peat in oil palm plantation in Labuhanbatu Regency, North Sumatra Province based on the distance from the river and the depth of sampling. Ten peat sampling points were carried out according to hydro sequence transect from the Leidong River. Each point was about 300 m apart from one another, and at each point peat samples were taken at depths of 0-50 cm and 50-100 cm. Analysis of bulk density, porosity, pH, organik-C, CEC, total-N, total-P, available-P was carried out on each sample. The difference of the distance from the river had no effect on the peat bulk density and porosity. On the other hand, deeper samples had lower bulk density and higher porosity. More distance from the river had lower pH. The distance from the river and depth of samples did not affect peat organik-C, CEC, total-N, total-P, and available-P. This study showed that a more detailed research is needed to determine the effect of distance from river, peat depth, and anthropogenic affect on peat productivity.
Keyword: bulk density, hydrosequence transect, oil palm, pH, porosity

Judul: Construction of Strongly Optimal Binary Linear Code with Minimum Distance 9 and 11
Abstrak: A binary linear code of length n over q F is a subspace of n q F . A code has three parameters that attached to it, namely length, dimension, and minimum distance. A code with length n, dimension k and minimum distance d is often called [n, k, d ]-code. Usually, when two parameters are given, then we want to find a code that has the best value for the last parameter. Based on Gilbert- Varshamov bound, if a [n, k, d ]-code exists and can not be expanded, we call it a strongly optimal code. In this paper, we construct strongly optimal code with minimum distance 9 and 11. In constructing the code, we created a theorem and algorithm based on Gilbert-Varshamov bound before we implement the algorithm to MAPLE programming language. Because of computational limitations, the program can only construct up to k = 10 for d = 9 and k = 12 for d = 11.
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