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Safe disposal of municipal sewage sludge is a challenging global environmental concern. The aim of this study was to assess the response of soil microbial functional diversity to the accumulation of municipal sewage sludge during landfill storage. Soil samples of a municipal sewage sludge (SS) and from a sewage sludge landfill that was 3 m from a SS landfill (SS3) were analyzed relative to an undisturbed reference soil. Biolog EcoPlatesTM were inoculated with a soil suspension, and the Average Well Color Development (AWCD), Richness (R) and Shannon-Weaver index (H) were calculated to interpret the results. The fungi isolated from the sewage sludge were identified using comparative rDNA sequencing of the LSU D2 region. The MicroSEQ® ID software was used to assess the raw sequence files, perform sequence matching to the MicroSEQ® ID-validated reference database and create Neighbor-Joining trees. Moreover, the genera of fungi isolated from the soil were identified using microscopic methods. Municipal sewage sludge can serve as a habitat for plant pathogens and as a source of pathogen strains for biotechnological applications.

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The aim of the work was to evaluate the impact of use of conventional and organic cultivation systems on selected parameters of microbial activity in the soil under wheat, barley and oat cultivation. Microbiological, biochemical, enzymatic and metabolic activities were analyzed during three seasons over 3 years in soil. The more beneficial effect of organic cultivation was reflected in the increase in bacterial growth, the intensification of the nitrification and higher activity of all analyzed enzymes. The conventional system was more favorable for the development of fungi. The assessment of the metabolic profile of soil microorganisms demonstrated clear differences between the activity of microorganisms in the organic and conventional systems. The results indicate that cultivation of soil in the organic system is more conducive to the environment. The authors conducted research, because there is no unambiguous answer to the question which growing system is more beneficial for soil biological life, i.e., the basis for food production. Microorganisms that are the object of these studies form the basis for the fertility of all soil ecosystems. Graphic abstract