Studies on biological decomposition of wheat straw

Abstract

The screening of micro-organisms decomposing wheat straw was done under laboratory conditions on the basis of the amount of carbon mineralized from wheat straw during a period of four months. In general, inoculation of wheat straw with different micro-organisms had favorable effect on the amount of carbon mineralized. Among the bacterial and fungus cultures isolated from baited wheat straw an Aspergillus sp. (Isolate No. 18) proved to be the most rapid wheat straw decomposer under laboratory conditions. 16 BIOLOGICAL DECOMPOSITION OF W H E A T STRAW. I No. 18) and is in line with the reports of Jensen", K a l e k a r et al. lo, and S z eg113 who suggested that fungi are more important than bacteria in the decomposition of cellulosic materials.