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Effects of Continuous Thermophilic Composting (CTC) on Bacterial Community in the Active Composting Process

  • Environmental Microbiology
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Abstract

The method of continuous thermophilic composting (CTC) remarkably shortened the active composting cycle and enhanced the compost stability. Effects of CTC on the quantities of bacteria, with a comparison to the traditional composting (TC) method, were explored by plate count with incubation at 30, 40 and 50°C, respectively, and by quantitative PCR targeting the universal bacterial 16S rRNA genes and the Bacillus 16S rRNA genes. The comparison of cultivatable or uncultivatable bacterial numbers indicated that CTC might have increased the biomass of bacteria, especially Bacillus spp., during the composting. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis was employed to investigate the effects of CTC on bacterial diversity, and a community dominated by fewer species was detected in a typical CTC run. The analysis of sequence and phylogeny based on DGGE indicated that the continuously high temperature had changed the structure of bacterial community and strengthened the mainstay role of the thermophilic and spore-forming Bacillus spp. in CTC run.

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Acknowledgments

This study was financially supported by the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University of China (IRT0719), the National Basic Research Program (973 Program) (2005CB724203), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (50978088 and 30970105), and the Hunan Key Scientific Research Project (2009FJ1010). Finally, the authors are very grateful to two anonymous reviewers who contributed to improving the manuscript both in terms of quality and comprehensibility.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China

    Yong Xiao, Guang-Ming Zeng, Zhao-Hui Yang, Cui Huang, Wen-Jun Shi, Zheng-Yong Xu, Jing Huang & Chang-Zheng Fan

  2. Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha, 410082, China

    Yong Xiao, Guang-Ming Zeng, Zhao-Hui Yang, Cui Huang, Wen-Jun Shi, Zheng-Yong Xu, Jing Huang & Chang-Zheng Fan

  3. Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, 361021, China

    Yong Xiao

  4. Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100080, China

    Yan-He Ma

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  1. Yong Xiao
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Correspondence to Guang-Ming Zeng.

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Xiao, Y., Zeng, GM., Yang, ZH. et al. Effects of Continuous Thermophilic Composting (CTC) on Bacterial Community in the Active Composting Process. Microb Ecol 62, 599–608 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-011-9882-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-011-9882-z

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