Identification of soil bacterial community in a rubber farm and forest

In Malaysia, chemical inter alia fertilisers and pesticides have been used in considerably large quantities in agricultural production to maximise the crop yields. Nonetheless, their usage have been proven to degrade soil health, particularly affecting the soil bacterial community. The reduction of the bacterial community may potentially hinder soil functions and services, in which soil bacterial presence is significant. This study aims to isolate, identify and compare the soil bacterial community of two land uses, vis a vis, a rubber farm and a forest. The physicochemical and microbiological properties of the soil samples were analysed using various methods: feel texture, soil pH, gravimetric water content, (GTG)5 and 16S rRNA fingerprinting methods. Physicochemical studies reveal that soil pH and gravimetric water content differed slightly in both locations. As for the microbiological properties, the average CFUs were higher in the forest’s soil than in the rubber farm. The sequencing of 16S rRNA reveals that four genera (Priestia, Pseudomonas, Bacillus, and Lysinibacillus) were identified in the forest; meanwhile, only one genus (Bacillus) was identified in the rubber farm. This study suggested that the contrast in the variation of identified genera in forest and rubber farm may be influenced by multiple soil properties such as soil pH, soil texture and soil water content, and most importantly, the usage of pesticides and fertilisers. Keywords: Rubber farm, forest, soil microbial community, 16S rRNA sequencin