Can Community Level Physiological Profiles Be Used For Compost Maturity Testing?

Community level physiological profiling utilizing Biolog plates was evaluated as an assay for testing the maturity of composts. Compost samples of different maturity stages were collected from a forced-aeration open windrow biowaste composting site. Several approaches of data analysis were used. They included single-point readings at certain well color densities, estimation of the area under activity curves, calculations of kinetic parameters and, finally, estimates of functional diversity. The capacity of community level physiological profiles to characterize compost maturity was evaluated in reference to several other physicochemical and biological (respiration, microbial biomass) maturity indices. Methods of optical density transformation and analytical procedures had little effect on the quality of information derived from principal component analysis. Except for a difference in resolution, both physicochemical parameters and community level physiological profiles were suitable for identifying different stages of compost maturity. The data suggested that community level physiological profiles may be a promising tool for evaluation of compost maturity.

[1]  L. Forney,et al.  Analysis of factors affecting the accuracy, reproducibility, and interpretation of microbial community carbon source utilization patterns , 1995, Applied and environmental microbiology.

[2]  J. Sørensen,et al.  Detection of viable, but non‐culturable Pseudomonas fluorescens DF57 in soil using a microcolony epifluorescence technique , 1993 .

[3]  F. Schinner,et al.  Methods in Soil Biology. , 1997 .

[4]  Second Edition,et al.  Statistical Package for the Social Sciences , 1970 .

[5]  J. Garland Patterns of potential C source utilization by rhizosphere communities , 1996 .

[6]  D. H. Davidson,et al.  Community analysis by Biolog: curve integration for statistical analysis of activated sludge microbial habitats , 1996 .

[7]  H. Heuer,et al.  Evaluation of community-level catabolic profiling using BIOLOG GN microplates to study microbial community changes in potato phyllosphere , 1997 .

[8]  H. Insam A New Set of Substrates Proposed for Community Characterization in Environmental Samples , 1997 .

[9]  Á. Zsolnay,et al.  Water extractable organic matter in arable soils : effects of drought and long-term fertilization , 1994 .

[10]  K. Domsch,et al.  A physiological method for the quantitative measurement of microbial biomass in soils , 1978 .

[11]  A. Konopka,et al.  The Use of Carbon Substrate Utilization Patterns in Environmental and Ecological Microbiology , 1998, Microbial Ecology.

[12]  J. P. E. AND-N A PHYSIOLOGICAL METHOD FOR THE QUANTITATIVE MEASUREMENT OF MICROBIAL BIOMASS IN SOILS , 2022 .

[13]  M. Willig,et al.  Functional diversity of microbial communities: A quantitative approach , 1994 .

[14]  Ronald P. Barry,et al.  Microbial community analysis: a kinetic approach to constructing potential C source utilization patterns , 1998 .

[15]  S. Macnaughton,et al.  A dispersion and differential centrifugation technique for representatively sampling microorganisms from soil , 1991 .

[16]  E. Epstein The science of composting , 1996 .

[17]  N. Senesi,et al.  Chemical and Physico-Chemical Parameters for Quality Evaluation of Humic Substances Produced during Composting , 1996 .

[18]  K. Stephen,et al.  Oxidation of methane in peat: Kinetics of CH4 and O2 removal and the role of plant roots , 1997 .

[19]  A. Winding,et al.  Viability of Indigenous Soil Bacteria Assayed by Respiratory Activity and Growth , 1994, Applied and environmental microbiology.

[20]  H. Heuer,et al.  Analysis of BIOLOG GN Substrate Utilization Patterns by Microbial Communities , 1998, Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

[21]  A. Mills,et al.  Classification and Characterization of Heterotrophic Microbial Communities on the Basis of Patterns of Community-Level Sole-Carbon-Source Utilization , 1991, Applied and environmental microbiology.

[22]  P. Nannipieri,et al.  Methods in Applied Soil Microbiology and Biochemistry , 1996 .

[23]  S. Kreitz,et al.  Substrate utilization patterns of extractable and non-extractable bacterial fractions in neutral and acidic beech forest soils. , 1997 .

[24]  F. Dobbs,et al.  Comparison of two kinds of Biolog microplates (GN and ECO) in their ability to distinguish among aquatic microbial communities. , 1999, Journal of microbiological methods.

[25]  J. Garland Analysis and interpretation of community-level physiological profiles in microbial ecology , 1997 .

[26]  R. Barberis,et al.  Evaluation of Compost Stability , 1996 .