Tropical peat comprises decomposed dead plant material and acts like a sponge to absorb water, making it fully saturated. However, drought periods dry it readily and increases its vulnerability to fire. Peat fires emit greenhouse gases and particles contributing to haze, and prevention by constructing fire-break canals to reduce fire spread into forest reserves is crucial. This paper aims to determine peat physical and chemical properties near a fire-break canal at different fire frequency areas. Peat sampling was conducted at two forest reserves in Malaysia which represent low fire frequency and high fire frequency areas. The results show that peat properties were not affected by the construction of a fire-break canal, however lignin and cellulose content increased significantly from the distance of the canal in both areas. The study concluded that fire frequency did not significantly influence peat properties except for porosity. The higher fibre content in the high frequency area did not influence moisture content nor the ability to regain moisture. Thus, fire frequency might contribute differently to changes in physical and chemical properties, hence management efforts to construct fire- break canals and restoration efforts should protect peatlands from further degradation. These findings will benefit future management and planning for forest reserves.

热带泥炭由分解的死亡植物材料组成，就像海绵一样吸收水分，使其完全饱和。然而，干旱时期它很容易干燥并增加其着火的可能性。泥炭火灾会排放温室气体和导致雾霾的颗粒物，通过修建防火运河来减少火灾蔓延到森林保护区来预防至关重要。本文旨在确定不同火灾频率区域防火渠附近泥炭的物理和化学特性。在马来西亚的两个森林保护区进行了泥炭采样，这两个森林保护区代表火灾频率低的地区和火灾频率高的地区。结果表明，泥炭特性并未受到防火运河建设的影响，但木质素和纤维素含量随着两个地区运河的距离而显着增加。研究得出的结论是，除孔隙度外，火灾频率不会显着影响泥炭特性。高频区域较高的纤维含量不会影响水分含量或回潮能力。因此，火灾频率可能对物理和化学特性的变化产生不同的影响，因此，建设防火运河和恢复工作的管理工作应保护泥炭地免遭进一步退化。这些发现将有利于未来森林保护区的管理和规划。