Abstract
The effects of initial temperature regime on microbial community succession during controlled composting of organic household waste in a laboratory reactor was determined by analysis of phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs). Spontaneous self-heating of the substrate led to substantial microbial biomass increase (maximum PLFA concentration of 2000 nmol g−1 d.w.) and high CO2 production in the thermophilic phase (regulated at 55 °C). In contrast, when the initial period of temperature increase was shortened by external heating, there was a negligible increase in biomass and only a small increase in CO2 production. Thus, attempts to speed up the process initially by external heating are not advisable. The increase in PLFA concentration under self-heating conditions occurred mainly in iso- and anteiso-branched fatty acids (more than 100-fold increase, their maximum corresponding roughly to 1011 bacterial cells g−1 d.w.) from different types of thermophilic bacteria. One PLFA typical of actinomycetes (10Me 18:0) had a low initial concentration, but started to increase during the thermophilic phase. The abundance of polyunsaturated PLFAs generally decreased during composting, indicating no growth of eukaryotes.
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Sundh, I., Rönn, S. (2002). Microbial Succession During Composting of Source-Separated Urban Organic Household Waste Under Different Initial Temperature Conditions. In: Insam, H., Riddech, N., Klammer, S. (eds) Microbiology of Composting. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-08724-4_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-08724-4_5
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