Vermiculture in solving the problems of organic waste bioconversion

Ulyanovsk State Agrarian University named after P.A. Stolypin, 432017 Ulyanovsk, Russia

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Abstract

The work is dedicated to a comparative study of the microbiocenoses vermicomposts of three types of lumbricides used as vermiculture for processing organic waste into high–quality organic fertilizer - biohumus. The aim of the study was to comparatively investigate the features of the microbial community of biohumus (vermicomposts) obtained using earthworms. Selective media were used to identify the structure of microbiocenosis. Microbiocenosis of under studied lumbricide species differs in the numerical content of ammonifying, cellulolytic, nitrifying microbiota, microbiota mobilizing organic phosphates, the number of saprophytic fungi and actinomycetes. The vermicompost of L. terrestris contains a high content of cellulolytic microbiota, saprophytic fungi and actinomycetes. The vermicomposts E. andrei and E. fetida have significantly fewer of these microbiota, but they have a large number of microbiota mobilizing organic phosphates, nitrifying and aminifying microbiota. There are significantly fewer of these microorganisms in the L. terrestris vermicompost. When obtaining vermicompost from fermented cattle manure, the microbial community of E. andrei vermicompost increased 7.3 times, E. fetida – almost 6,5 times, L. terrestris – more than 4.6 times.