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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbiological Chemistry and Geomicrobiology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1470930

Biochar promotes compost humification by regulating bacterial and fungal communities

Provisionally accepted
Zhang Junying Zhang Junying 1Bowen Fan Bowen Fan 2Liqin Zhao Liqin Zhao 2Changjiang Zhao Changjiang Zhao 2*Fengjun Yang Fengjun Yang 2*
  • 1 College of Agricultural, Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, Heilongjiang, China
  • 2 Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, Daqing, Heilongjiang Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Humus can be formed during composting through biological pathways, nonetheless, the mechanisms through which bacterial and fungal communities govern the development of humus in compost with the addition of biochar remain uncertain. In this study, compost with cow dung and maize stover as feedstock was employed as a control group, and compost with 10% biochar added on top of the feedstock was adopted as a treatment group to investigate the effect of bacterial and fungal communities on humus formation during biochar composting. The results demonstrated that the humic acid content increased by 24.82% and 25.10% at the cooling and maturation stages, respectively, after adding biochar. Besides, the degree of polymerization content in the maturation stage was elevated by 90.98%, which accelerated the humification process of the compost. During the thermophilic and maturity stages, there was a respective increase of 51.34% and 31.40% in reducing sugar content, suggesting that the inclusion of biochar could furnish ample reducing sugar substrate for the Maillard reaction. The addition of biochar reduced the number of humus precursor-associated genera by 35, increased the number of genera involved in humus synthesis by two, and enhanced the stability of the cross-domain network between bacteria and fungi, which confirms that microorganisms contribute to the humification process by decreasing humus precursor consumption as well as increasing humus synthesis with the addition of biochar. Additionally, adding biochar could enhance the humification capacity of the compost pile by dominating the Maillard reaction with reducing sugars as the substrate and strengthening the function of humus synthesis-associated genera. This study enhances our comprehension of the regulatory pathways of biochar in the humification process during composting.

    Keywords: composting, biochar, Humus, The cross-domain network, structural equation modeling (SEM)

    Received: 26 Jul 2024; Accepted: 09 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Junying, Fan, Zhao, Zhao and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Changjiang Zhao, Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, Daqing, 163319, Heilongjiang Province, China
    Fengjun Yang, Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, Daqing, 163319, Heilongjiang Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.