caa a22 4500 397567960 CHVBK 20180308164833.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161202e199605 xx s 000 0 eng 10.3382/ps.0750608 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)oxford-10.3382/ps.0750608 Biodegradability and Microbial Activities During Composting of Poultry Litter [Elektronische Daten] [CHERYL F. ATKINSON, DANIEL D. JONES, JOSEPH J. GAUTHIER] Poultry litter is composted to reduce odor and pathogens and to improve its quality as a soil amendment. Organic material, e.g., sawdust, is added to increase the C:N ratio to achieve optimum degradation of organic C and retention of N through microbial biomass formation. However, the relative biodegradabilities of the organic material in poultry litter and the amendment are usually not known. Furthermore, it is assumed that as microorganisms metabolize organic compounds and produce CO2, they increase in biomass and, therefore, retain N. In this study, bench-scale compost reactors were used to determine the relative contributions of poultry litter and of the amendment (sawdust) to the biodegradability of a compost mix. Approximately 29% of the volatiles lost from the poultry litter mix came from the sawdust. Fiber analyses revealed that only a small portion of cellulose was degraded. Although microbial subpopulations able to degrade selected macromolecules were present at varying levels, the overall level of microorganisms did not change markedly. Populations capable of degrading bacterial cell walls were present throughout the composting period, and microbiological assays indicated that inorganic nutrients were available to support limited microbial growth. These results suggest that N compounds and inorganic nutrients are recycled, rather than fixed during composting. © 1996 Poultry Science Association, Inc. Environment and Health nationallicence poultry litter compost nationallicence microorganisms nationallicence enzymes nationallicence biodegradability nationallicence bench-scale reactors nationallicence ATKINSON CHERYL F. aut JONES DANIEL D. aut GAUTHIER JOSEPH J. aut Poultry Science Oxford University Press 75/5(1996-05), 608-617 0032-5791 75:5<608 1996 75 ps https://doi.org/10.3382/ps.0750608 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.3382/ps.0750608 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- ATKINSON CHERYL F. aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- JONES DANIEL D. aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- GAUTHIER JOSEPH J. aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Poultry Science Oxford University Press 75/5(1996-05), 608-617 0032-5791 75:5<608 1996 75 ps Metadata rights reserved CC BY-NC-4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-oxford