JOURNAL OF DEGRADED AND MINING LANDS MANAGEMENT Volume 9, Number 2 (January 2022):3349-3358, doi:10.15243/jdmlm.2022.092.3349 ISSN: 2339-076X (p); 2502-2458 (e), www.jdmlm.ub.ac.id Open Access 3349 Research Article Assessing the distribution of total Fe, Cu, and Zn in tropical peat at an oil palm plantation and their relationship with several environmental factors Heru Bagus Pulunggono 1* , Lina Lathifah Nurazizah 2 , Moh Zulfajrin 3 , Syaiful Anwar 1 , Supiandi Sabiham 1 1 Department of Soil Science and Land Resource, IPB University, Bogor 16680 Indonesia 2 Bachelor Program of Agronomy and Horticulture Department, IPB University, Bogor 16680 Indonesia 3 Bachelor Program of Soil Science and Land Resource Department, IPB University, Bogor 16680 Indonesia * corresponding author: heruipb@yahoo.co.id Abstract Article history: Received 1 November 2021 Accepted 18 December 2021 Published 1 January 2022 Extensive utilization of fragile tropical peatlands ecosystem encourages a better understanding of spatiotemporal micronutrients distribution. The distribution of total Fe, Cu, and Zn in peat and their relationship with environmental factors were studied under oil palm plantation, Pangkalan Pisang, Koto Gasib, Riau, Indonesia. Peat samples were taken compositely inside the block using a combination of six factors, including a) the oil palm age (<6, 6-15, >15 years old), b) the peat thickness (< 3 and >3 m), c) season (rainy and dry), d) the distances from the secondary canal (10, 25, 50, 75, 100, and 150 m), e) the distances from an oil palm tree (1, 2, 3, and 4 m), and f) the depth of sample collection (0-20, 20-40, and 40-70 cm from the peat surface). Total Fe, Cu, and Zn were determined by the wet digestion method. These micronutrients observed in this study possessed high variability; however, they were within the expected range in tropical peatland. The entire micronutrients were statistically different by oil palm age, peat thickness, and distance from canal. Meanwhile, total Cu and Zn were also significantly different at each season. The oil palm age, peat thickness, and distance from the canal were the common factors controlling total Fe, Cu, and Zn in peat significantly. Moreover, total Cu and Zn were also dictated by season, distance from the oil palm tree, and depth of sample collection. Based on visual interpretation in PCA (principal component analysis), all micronutrients were categorized into two groups, separated by 2 m distance from the oil palm tree and 20 cm depth from the soil surface. Our study also highlights the dominance of the dilution over the enrichment process in peat, which requires further research to formulate micronutrients fertilization, especially for an extended cultivation time. Keywords: oil palm age peat micronutrients peat thickness season tree and canal distances To cite this article: Pulunggono, H.B., Nurazizah, L.L., Zulfajrin, M., Anwar, S. and Sabiham, S. 2022. Assessing the distribution of total Fe, Cu, and Zn in tropical peat at an oil palm plantation and their relationship with several environmental factors. Journal of Degraded and Mining Lands Management 9(2):3349-3358, doi:10.15243/jdmlm.2022.092.3349. Introduction Tropical peatlands occupy an area of about 13.4 million hectares (Mha) in Indonesia, contributing to about 7% of the national total land area and mostly distributed over the lowland area of Sumatera and Borneo Islands, whereas small parts are found scattering in Papua and Sulawesi Islands (Anda et al., 2021). Peat is considered an important natural resource that has been allocated for future development in national and regional planning (Law et al., 2015; Sari et al., 2021). Due to the limited productive area of mineral soil, the large size of the peat area has been the