Microbial community during poultry litter composting

Composting is a widely used method to reduce the pathogen load in animal waste. To improve the peak temperature and reduce the odorous gas emission, low amounts of biochar was added during poultry litter composting. Poultry litter samples were collected before and after in-house windrow composting. The research goals of this research are 1) to evaluate the change of bacterial and fungal community during poultry litter composting; 2) to determine the dominant driving factors which influence the bacterial and fungal community structures and diversity.