The dominant role of cooperation in fungal community drives the humification process of chicken manure composting under addition of regulatory factors

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the action mechanism of fungal community on the enhancement of humification during chicken manure composting by regulating the core pathway of carbon metabolism - the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Regulators adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and malonic acid were added at the beginning of composting. The analysis of changes in humification parameters showed that the humification degree and stability of compost products were improved by adding regulators. Compared with CK, the humification parameters of adding regulators group increased by 10.98% on average. Meanwhile, adding regulators not only increased key nodes, but also strengthened the positive correlation between fungi, and network relationship was closer. Moreover, core fungi associated with humification parameters were identified by constructing OTU networks, and the division and cooperation mechanism of fungi were confirmed. Ultimately, the functional role of the fungal community acting on humification was confirmed by statistical means, that was, the fungal community promoting humification was the main group of composting process. And the contribution was more obvious in ATP treatment. This study was helpful to gain insight into the mechanism of regulators addition to advance the humification process, and provided new ideas for the safe, efficient and harmless disposal of organic solid waste.