Agricultural activity has been intensively developed to meet the world's population's demand for food and nutrients. However, these advantages are currently threatened by the sustainable treatment of agricultural and livestock residues to reduce pollution. The intensification of agriculture and animal husbandry to feed the world's rapidly growing population has resulted in massive waste generation. If these wastes are not properly disposed of, they can pollute the environment and harm human health. Previously, agrochemicals and synthetic minerals were used in agricultural production to increase crop productivity. However, excessive use of agrochemicals and pesticides not only degrades soil quality due to biodiversity loss but also reduces groundwater quality, eventually depleting available nutrients and mineral soils. Agricultural and animal wastes contain enormous amounts of nutrients and have traditionally been treated by composting to produce organic fertilizers for resource recycling. Furthermore, composting reduces environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions and leaching of nutrients and pollutants.
Aerobic composting is widely known and recognized as a viable method for treating and converting crop residue and livestock waste. Despite being a suitable method for treating these wastes, several significant problems need further attention from researchers as they affect the productivity of composting process as well the quality of the compost end-product. As a result, it necessitates a significant investment in energy, time, and cost for compost production. Furthermore, there are some issues concerning nutrient leaching (nitrate), pollutants (heavy metals), contaminants (antibiotics), and greenhouse gas emissions (nitrous oxide, N2O). Various technological advances have recently become available to improve and reduce the adverse effect of organic waste conversion into high-value-added products through composting. Monitoring the physical and microbiological parameters of composting as well as adding microbial inoculants and additives like biochar, are a few strategies used to enhance the composting process. However, the issues associated with composting technologies, for example, the energy required for aeration, the viability and cost of microbial inoculation and additives inclusion, the indicator or sensor for monitoring odor/pollutants generation, and the evaluation and criteria of the end-product quality, should be addressed for sustainable compost production.
This research topic aims at gathering all the related research to fill knowledge gaps and gain new insights into strategies for developing more efficient composting processes and better evaluating the quality of compost end-products as well as their application in agricultural fields. We welcome submissions, including original research articles, reviews, and meta-analyses covering the following but not limited to:
•Development of novel and advanced composting technologies.
•Detection and quantification and mitigating strategies of antibiotic resistance genes
(ARG’s), Mobile genetic elements (MGE’s), and heavy metals during composting.
•Microbial ecology and functional diversity assessment by either culture-dependent
(isolation of functional microbes) and culture-independent (16S rRNA gene, quantitative PCR (qPCR), digital PCR (ddPCR), metagenomics, metatranscriptomics) techniques and their relationship between physicochemical parameters during the composting process.
•The effect of microbial inoculation on composting process enhancement.
•The effect of additives addition (e.g Biochar, zeolite, etc.) on composting process
enhancement.
•Development of strategies and prediction models for mitigating greenhouses gas and
ammonia emissions during the composting process.
•Evaluation of compost as key to sequestering carbon in the soil.
•Economic analysis of composting process and its end-products.
Agricultural activity has been intensively developed to meet the world's population's demand for food and nutrients. However, these advantages are currently threatened by the sustainable treatment of agricultural and livestock residues to reduce pollution. The intensification of agriculture and animal husbandry to feed the world's rapidly growing population has resulted in massive waste generation. If these wastes are not properly disposed of, they can pollute the environment and harm human health. Previously, agrochemicals and synthetic minerals were used in agricultural production to increase crop productivity. However, excessive use of agrochemicals and pesticides not only degrades soil quality due to biodiversity loss but also reduces groundwater quality, eventually depleting available nutrients and mineral soils. Agricultural and animal wastes contain enormous amounts of nutrients and have traditionally been treated by composting to produce organic fertilizers for resource recycling. Furthermore, composting reduces environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions and leaching of nutrients and pollutants.
Aerobic composting is widely known and recognized as a viable method for treating and converting crop residue and livestock waste. Despite being a suitable method for treating these wastes, several significant problems need further attention from researchers as they affect the productivity of composting process as well the quality of the compost end-product. As a result, it necessitates a significant investment in energy, time, and cost for compost production. Furthermore, there are some issues concerning nutrient leaching (nitrate), pollutants (heavy metals), contaminants (antibiotics), and greenhouse gas emissions (nitrous oxide, N2O). Various technological advances have recently become available to improve and reduce the adverse effect of organic waste conversion into high-value-added products through composting. Monitoring the physical and microbiological parameters of composting as well as adding microbial inoculants and additives like biochar, are a few strategies used to enhance the composting process. However, the issues associated with composting technologies, for example, the energy required for aeration, the viability and cost of microbial inoculation and additives inclusion, the indicator or sensor for monitoring odor/pollutants generation, and the evaluation and criteria of the end-product quality, should be addressed for sustainable compost production.
This research topic aims at gathering all the related research to fill knowledge gaps and gain new insights into strategies for developing more efficient composting processes and better evaluating the quality of compost end-products as well as their application in agricultural fields. We welcome submissions, including original research articles, reviews, and meta-analyses covering the following but not limited to:
•Development of novel and advanced composting technologies.
•Detection and quantification and mitigating strategies of antibiotic resistance genes
(ARG’s), Mobile genetic elements (MGE’s), and heavy metals during composting.
•Microbial ecology and functional diversity assessment by either culture-dependent
(isolation of functional microbes) and culture-independent (16S rRNA gene, quantitative PCR (qPCR), digital PCR (ddPCR), metagenomics, metatranscriptomics) techniques and their relationship between physicochemical parameters during the composting process.
•The effect of microbial inoculation on composting process enhancement.
•The effect of additives addition (e.g Biochar, zeolite, etc.) on composting process
enhancement.
•Development of strategies and prediction models for mitigating greenhouses gas and
ammonia emissions during the composting process.
•Evaluation of compost as key to sequestering carbon in the soil.
•Economic analysis of composting process and its end-products.
