Soils may act as sources or sinks of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Many of the formed VOCs are produced by microorganisms, and it would be a challenge to investigate soil microbial communities by studying their VOC profile. Such "volatilomics" would have the advantage of avoiding extraction steps that are often a limit in genomic or proteomic approaches. Abundant literature on microbially produced VOCs is available, and in particular novel detection methods allow additional insight. The aim of this paper was to give an overview on the current knowledge of microbial VOC emissions from soils.

The agronomic effects of composts, mineral fertiliser and combinations thereof on chemical, biological and physiological soil properties have been studied in an 18-year field experiment. The present study aimed at tracing treatment effects by evaluating the volatile organic compound (VOC) emission of the differently treated soils: non-amended control, nitrogen fertilisation and composts (produced from organic waste and sewage sludge, respectively) in combination with nitrogen fertiliser. Microbial community structure was determined by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Aerobic and anaerobic soil VOC emission was determined after glucose amendment using proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry (PTR-MS). After inducing VOC production by substrate (glucose) addition and at the same time reducing oxygen availability to impair degradation of the produced VOCs, we were able to differentiate among the treatments. Organic waste compost did not alter the VOC emissions compared to the untreated control, whilst sewage sludge composts and mineral fertilisation showed distinct effects. This differentiation was supported by DGGE analysis of fungal 18S rDNA fragments and confirms earlier findings on bacterial communities. Three major conclusions can be drawn: (1) VOC patterns are able to discriminate among soil treatments.(2) Sewage sludge compost and mineral fertilisation have not only the strongest impact on microbial community composition but also on VOC emission patterns, but specific tracer VOCs could not be identified. (3) Future efforts should aim at a PTR-MS-linked identification of the detected masses.

Wood ash addition to biogas plants represents an alternative to commonly used landfilling by improving the reactor performance, raising the pH and alleviating potential limits of trace elements. This study is the first on the effects of wood ash on reactor conditions and microbial communities in cattle slurry-based biogas reactors. General process parameters [temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, ammonia, volatile fatty acids, carbon/nitrogen (C/N), total solids (TS), volatile solids, and gas quantity and quality] were monitored along with molecular analyses of methanogens by polymerase chain reaction- denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and modern microarrays (archaea and bacteria). A prompt pH rise was observed, as was an increase in C/N ratio and volatile fatty acids. Biogas production was inhibited, but recovered to even higher production rates and methane concentration after single amendment. High sulphur levels in the wood ash generated hydrogen sulphide and potentially hampered methanogenesis. Methanosarcina was the most dominant methanogen in all reactors; however, diversity was higher in ash-amended reactors. Bacterial groups like Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria were favoured, which could improve the hydrolytic efficiency of the reactors. We recommend constant monitoring of the chemical composition of the used wood ash and suggest that ash amendment is adequate if added to the substrate at a rate low enough to allow adaptation of the microbiota (e.g. 0.25 g g(-1) TS). It could further help to enrich digestate with important nutrients, for example phosphorus, calcium and magnesium, but further experiments are required for the evaluation of wood ash concentrations that are tolerable for anaerobic digestion.