Abstract
Carbon is the crucial source of energy during aerobic composting. There are few studies that explore carbon preservation by inoculation with microbial agents during goat manure composting. Hence, this study inoculated three proportions of microbial agents to investigate the preservation of carbon during goat manure composting. The microbial inoculums were composed of Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus licheniformis, Trichoderma viride, Aspergillus niger, and yeast, and the proportions were B1 treatment (1:1:1:1:2), B2 treatment (2:2:1:1:2), and B3 treatment (3:3:1:1:2). The results showed that the contents of total organic carbon were enriched by 12.21%, 4.87%, and 1.90% in B1 treatment, B2 treatment, and B3 treatment, respectively. The total organic carbon contents of B1 treatment, B2 treatment, and B3 treatment were 402.00 ± 2.65, 366.33 ± 1.53, and 378.33 ± 2.08 g/kg, respectively. B1 treatment significantly increased the content of total organic carbon compared with the other two treatments (p < 0.05). Moreover, the ratio of 1:1:1:1:2 significantly reduced the moisture content, pH value, EC value, hemicellulose, and lignin contents (p < 0.05), and significantly increased the GI value and the content of humic acid carbon (p < 0.05). Consequently, the preservation of carbon might be a result not only of the enrichment of the humic acid carbon and the decomposition of hemicellulose and lignin, but also the increased OTU amount and Lactobacillus abundance. This result provided a ratio of microbial agents to preserve the carbon during goat manure aerobic composting.
Highlights
The results find that the proportion of microbial agents at 1:1:1:1:2 increases the amount of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and the relative abundance of Lactobacillus and the pH value was significantly reduced (p < 0.05) when the composting ended
Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus licheniformis, Trichoderma viride, Aspergillus niger, and yeast were inoculated in goat manure at ratios of 1:1:1:1:2 (B1), 2:2:1:1:2 (B2) and 3:3:1:1:2 (B3), respectively
The relationship between the TOC preservation and physicochemical indicators and bacterial communities were investigated during the composting process
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The goat industry has developed quickly in China, a large amount of goat manure is produced. Goat manure is considered a very valuable resource because of the abundant nutrients contained in it and the ability of using it to improve soil fertility [1,2]. Composting feeds nutrients and organic matter back into soils to improve crop growth and can decompose organic matter into humic substances [3,4]. The process of composting is affected by both environmental and biological factors, such as temperature, humidity, oxygen content, organic matter composition, and the presence of microorganisms [5]
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