The Gadjah Mada Nature Lovers (Mapagama) student team has completed an expedition in the peatlands of Keriung Forest, Kerihun National Park and Lake Sentarum, Kapuas Hulu Regency, West Kalimantan.
In this UGM Research Expedition IV entitled “Kawal Gambut Kapuas Hulu” which was held on 2 to 27 September 2019, the Mapagama team conducted research related to insect diversity at different peat maturity levels and spatial mapping of carbon stocks.
“The team managed to collect data at 36 sample points located in Kerinung Forest, Lake Sentarum National Park,” said the field coordinator, Faizal Musthofa.
He said the coverage of sample points reached an area of 347 hectares with a distance between the points of approximately 200 m. Abiotic and biotic data were collected for 13 days from 6 to 18 September 2019. Every day the team had to travel 5 -8 km from the flying base camp to sample points. The total distance traveled by the team while in the field was around 40.4 km.
“This is because the condition of Lake Sentarum cannot be accessed by speedboat due to receding Tawang River,” he explained.
Meanwhile, from the data collection that has been carried out, the Mapagama team managed to drill the peat 236 times with a depth ranging from 0.2 m to 9.29 m. Peat soil sampling was carried out at 15 points and vegetation analysis was done to 941 species. Next, data on 182 bird species and 2043 insect species were collected.
In this research expedition in West Kalimantan, Mapagama not only sent its own internal members, but also several external members who came from various faculties at UGM. They were Gracia Melsiana A (Postgraduate 2017), Kresna Muharram (Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences 2016), Fariz Ardianto (Forestry 2016), M Ismail Hamsyah (Cultural Studies 2017), Fahrudin Firda Raharja (Vocational School 2017), Faizal Musthofa (Geography 2016), M Khalid Arrasyid (Economics and Business 2016) and Demetria Alika P. (Forestry 2018).
