Bacterial community dynamics in tropical soil after sewage sludge amendment

Abstract

Although the widespread use of sewage sludge in developing countries is common, little is known about how sludge disposal can affect the microbial composition and diversity of tropical soils. We evaluated the effects of the sewage sludges of two types of anaerobic digestors differing, by the biological treatment they have undergone (uplow anaerobic sludge blanket and activated sludge digester), and two different disposal methods (surface and incorporated) on tropical soils. Samples were taken from topsoil (0-10 cm) and analyzed by amplifying the 16S rRNA genes to study the microbial community, and physicochemical analysis was performed concomitantly. The results indicated that, in general, sewage sludge amendment (SSA) significantly changed the tropical soil bacterial community by the sludge type and by application method. Moreover, the redundancy analysis diagram indicates that changes in soil chemical parameters over time due to SSA resulted in changes in the bacterial community's composition, increasing the population responsible for recycling nutrients in the soil.