Bacterial and Fungal Community Dynamics and Shaping Factors During Agricultural Waste Composting with Zeolite and Biochar Addition

Abstract

Bacterial and fungal communities play significant roles in waste biodegradation and nutrient reservation during composting. Biochar and zeolite were widely reported to directly or indirectly promote microbial growth. Therefore, the effects of zeolite and biochar on the abundance and structure of bacterial and fungal communities and their shaping factors during the composting of agricultural waste were studied. Four treatments were carried out as follows: Run A as the control without any addition, Run B with zeolite (5%), Run C with biochar (5%), and Run D with zeolite (5%) and biochar (5%), respectively. The bacterial and fungal community structures were detected by high-throughput sequencing. Redundancy analysis was used for determining the relationship between community structure and physico-chemical parameters. The results indicated that the addition of biochar and zeolite changed the physico-chemical parameters (e.g., pile temperature, pH, total organic matter, ammonium, nitrate, and water-soluble carbon) during the composting process. Zeolite and biochar significantly changed the structure and diversity of bacterial and fungal populations. Moreover, the bacterial community rather than the fungal community was sensitive to the biochar and zeolite addition during the composting process. Community phylogenetic characteristics showed that Nocardiopsaceae, Bacillaceae, Leuconostocaceae, Phyllobacteriaceae, and Xanthomonadaceae were the predominant bacterial species at the family-level. Chaetomiaceae and Trichocomaceae were the two most dominant fungal species. The pH, total organic matter, and nitrate were the most important factors affecting the bacterial and fungal population changes during the composting process.

Bio-safety assessment of nanozeolites of varying size and doses on soil beneficial microorganisms

“…Such observation is supported with our data on genotoxic assay in which the micro slides depicted that there was no quantifiable DNA damage in nano zeolite treated cells as compared to the control cultures. These results corroborates with the recent findings of Wu et al, (2020) who reported zeolite enriched compost showed enhanced microbial growth indicating that these materials have no toxic effects.…”

Indigenous cellulolytic aerobic and facultative anaerobic bacterial community enhanced the composting of rice straw and chicken manure with biochar addition

“…The pH of the pile increased, whereas the moisture decreased as the composting progressed (Fig .1 b,c). The results corresponded with a previous study which reported that the biochar addition increased the pH of the composting pile, which was due to the alkalinity properties of the biochar 23 . The physicochemical properties suggest that the enhancement of composting process could be due to the addition of biochar which improves the microbial activities for organic matter degradation.…”

Utilization of sheep dung and rice straw with indigenous microbial agent to optimize vermicompost production and quality

“…In this study, thermophilic bacteria ceased to grow and then decreased because metabolic products had inhibited bacterial development or organic matter for bacterial nutrition had depleted. It is in line with Wu et al (2020) which stated that the total organic matter and nitrate are the most important factors of bacterial and fungal population change during the composting process. The present study also confirms regarding interactions with indigenous microorganisms, the changes in C/N ratio and temperature affect the survival of pathogenic microbes in the composting process.…”