Effects of food waste compost on the shift of microbial community in water saturated and unsaturated soil condition

Abstract

Despite the widespread use of food waste compost as a soil organic amendment, there is limited information on how it affects the composition of the microbial community as well as its relationship on soil environmental factors. This study investigated the effects of food waste compost on soil microbial-community composition by using FAME analysis. It was established that the application of food waste composts in water saturated paddy and unsaturated upland soils increased pH levels, electrical conductivity (EC) values, total carbon (TC), and ESP contents. It also increased the total phospholipid fatty acid (T-PLFA) and fungi resulting in a significant rise in the fungi to bacterial ratio. Furthermore, microbial community composition shifted depending on the quantity of food waste compost applied after crop harvest in both paddy and upland soils. Also, a positive correlation was found between changes in soil microbial community and changes in TC, EC, and water availability for crop growth. These results suggest that soil fertility and its microbial composition depends on the amount of food waste compost applied in both water saturated the paddy and unsaturated upland soils. which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Exploring the nitrogen reservoir of biodegradable household garbage and its potential in replacing synthetic nitrogen fertilizers in China

“…Food waste is the main component of urban and rural household garbage, which is also one of the most promising renewable resources ( Cecchi & Cavinato, 2019 ). In the U.S. wastes about 63 × 10 6 t·a −1 of food wasted ( Dusoruth & Peterson, 2020 ), South Korea watstes about 5 × 10 6 t·a −1 food ( Lee et al, 2019 ), in Europe approximately 10.0 × 10 7 t·a −1 of food are wasted ( Zhang et al, 2018 ). Food waste reached to 3.16 × 10 7 t·a −1 in 2019 in China (dry weight).…”

Mixing Sodium-Chloride-Rich Food Waste Compost with Livestock Manure Composts Enhanced the Agronomic Performance of Leaf Lettuce

“…The end product of composting is a stabilised organic matter rich in humic substances and essential plant nutrients, which makes it a good form of organic fertiliser [12]. However, compost made from the food waste generated at the consumer level contains elevated amounts of sodium chloride [13,14] and may induce salinity when continually applied to the soil. Indeed, Lee et al [15] indicated that both the rice and red pepper yields decreased with increasing application rates of sodium chloride (NaCl)-rich food waste compost and attributed the decreases to the increasing salinity induced by the food waste compost.…”

“…In the light of the aforementioned undesirable attributes associated with soil salinity, it is imperative to search for sustainable methods of utilising NaCl-rich food waste compost so as to reduce the possibility of inducing soil salinity/sodicity. Due to the scarcity of plausible means of eliminating NaCl from the food waste before composting, food waste compost is usually laden with NaCl [13,14]. It is against that background that the current study explored the idea of mixing NaCl-rich food waste compost with low-NaCl-containing animal manure composts to produce compost amalgams with low NaCl contents.…”

Effects of Biochar and Compost Applications on Soil Properties and Growth Performance of Amaranthus sp. Grown at Urban Community Garden

“…When compost is incorporated into soil, it will be mineralised and provides a long lasting release of available nutrients to the plants (Ngo & Cavagnaro, 2018). The study by Lee et al (2019) stated that the usage of composts sourced from food waste escalated the values of pH, total carbon (TC), the electrical conductivity of soil and the exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) contents in unsaturated soils from highlands and water saturated paddy. According to Mensah & Frimpong (2018), the incorporation of compost and biochar in terms of usage enhanced the soil quality, increased the growth of the plant and provided a positive synergistic result on the nutrient contents of the soil under field conditions.…”