Off-site impacts of agricultural composting: role of terrestrially derived organic matter in structuring aquatic microbial communities and their metabolic potential

Pommier, Thomas and Merroune, Asmaa and Bettarel, Yvan and Got, Patrice and Janeau, Jean-Louis and Jouquet, Pascal and Thu, Thuy D and Toan, Tran D and Rochelle-Newall, Emma (2014) Off-site impacts of agricultural composting: role of terrestrially derived organic matter in structuring aquatic microbial communities and their metabolic potential. In: FEMS MICROBIOLOGY ECOLOGY, 90 (3). pp. 622-632.

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Abstract

While considered as sustainable and low-cost agricultural amendments, the impacts of organic fertilizers on downstream aquatic microbial communities remain poorly documented. We investigated the quantity and quality of the dissolved organic matter leaching from agricultural soil amended with compost, vermicompost or biochar and assessed their effects on lake microbial communities, in terms of viral and bacterial abundances, community structure and metabolic potential. The addition of compost and vermicompost significantly increased the amount of dissolved organic carbon in the leachate compared with soil alone. Leachates from these additions, either with or without biochar, were highly bioavailable to aquatic microbial communities, although reducing the metabolic potential of the community and harbouring more specific communities. Although not affecting bacterial richness or taxonomic distributions, the specific addition of biochar affected the original lake bacterial communities, resulting in a strongly different community. This could be partly explained by viral burst and converging bacterial abundances throughout the samples. These results underline the necessity to include off-site impacts of agricultural amendments when considering their cascading effect on downstream aquatic ecosystems.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	FEMS MICROBIOLOGY ECOLOGY
Additional Information:	Copyright for this article belongs to the WILEY-BLACKWELL, 111 RIVER ST, HOBOKEN 07030-5774, NJ USA
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Civil Engineering
Date Deposited:	18 Jan 2015 06:05
Last Modified:	18 Jan 2015 06:05
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/50678

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