Predicting the humification degree of multiple organic solid waste during composting using a designated bacterial community

Abstract

Microbes are the drivers for disposing of organic solid waste (OSW) during composting. Moreover, humus is a multipurpose biological macromolecule synthesized by microorganisms during composting. Here, we investigated the humification degree (HD), and the humus content was assessed in terms of the bacterial community. Microbial sequencing and bioinformatics approaches were combined to analyze the biological characteristics of 105 composting samples. The bacterial communities were useful indicators for making predictions and even correctly determined the categories of OSWs with 94% accuracy. Furthermore, the bacterial genera screened were designated as a bacterial code. The bacterial codes can also provide a better prediction of HD. Our results suggested that the bacteria code is a reliable biological method to assess HD effectively. Bacterial codes can be used as ecological and biological indicators to evaluate the quality of composting of different materials.