Abstract
We evaluated the abundance of microbial functional groups involved in compost fertility, and the chemical pa- rameters of maturity and quality most commonly analyzed in compost products. We employed compost produced using the same hydrolytic stage and two maturation processes (with and without earthworms) and with different organic wastes. Our aim was to propose a valid tool for measuring the quality standards of compost fertility from a microbial perspective. The products obtained from both maturation processes were highly variable in their chemical and biological composition (without following a general pattern). Because the results are so heterogeneous, proposing a microbial population as uni- versal indicator of the degree of compost fertility is very difficult. However, the microbial community structure might be used as a maturity index, because the products that best fulfilled the chemical stability parameters were those with lowest number of populations in its community.
Highlights
Compost amendments are widely used in agriculture because they contribute to alleviating two important environmental issues: loss of soil fertility and accumulation of organic residues produced by agricultural, household and industrial activities [1]
We evaluated the abundance of microbial functional groups involved in compost fertility and the chemical parameters of maturity and quality commonly analyzed in compost products
One half was left to continue with the maturation process in the same pile (WC) and the other half was placed in vermicomposting beds (VC) for maturation
Summary
Compost amendments are widely used in agriculture because they contribute to alleviating two important environmental issues: loss of soil fertility and accumulation of organic residues produced by agricultural, household and industrial activities [1]. Composting techniques include windrow-composting (a thermophilic hydrolytic stage plus a mesophilic maturation stage), vermicomposting (both mesophilic stages with earthworms) and a combination of both techniques. The latter method aims at eliminating pathogens (sanitization) through heat treatment and further use of earthworm activity to improve product stabilization [5, 6]. Organic residues with high structural compounds (cellulose and lignin) can only be degraded slowly by very specific groups of microorganisms, thereby producing compost with a high content of stabilized organic matter (OM). Waste materials with high amount of soluble compounds are metabolized very rapidly by any group of microorganisms, generating compost with a low level of stable OM [7, 8].
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