Assessment of Microbial Communities and Their Relationship with Enzymatic Activity during Composting

Abstract

Microbial communities and enzyme activities are the main players during municipal solid waste (MSW) composting, but the relationship between microbial communities (i.e., mesophilic and thermophilic ones) and enzyme activities (i.e., dehydrogenase, β-glucosidase, phosphatase and urea) has not been well studied. Therefore, the objective of this work is to determine the enzymes profiles during municipal solid waste (MSW) composting and study the relationship between the mesophilic and thermophilic microbial profiles and enzyme activities. MSW was composted in a bench-scale composting reactor. Parameters including temperature, oxygen uptake rate, numbers of microbial populations (mesophilic and thermophilic bacteria and fungi) and enzyme activities were measured. Results showed higher dehydrogenase activities are related to higher numbers of mesophilic bacteria, while higher phosphatase and urea activities are associated with higher numbers of thermophilic fungi and mesophilic bacteria at the later stage of composting. In addition, results of the correlation analysis indicated significant correlations among enzyme activities and microbial population.