Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 10
Microbial Biomass Improvement Following
Municipal Solid Waste Compost Application in
Agricultural Soil
Olfa Bouzaiane, Naceur Jedidi and Abdennaceur Hassen
Abstract
Soil microbial biomass (SMB) was considered as a sensitive and as indi-
cator of soil management especially for agricultural soil. Municipal solid waste
(MSW) composting process is a promising way to reduce waste production and to
obtain a stable end product such as compost available for agricultural use. How-
ever, the main requirement for the safe use or application of compost to agricultural
lands is its degree of stability, which implies stable organic matter content. This
practice is becoming one of the most promising ways for the reclamation and cor-
rection of organic matters loses in degraded soils. Many studies showed that MSW
compost soil application could (i) improve soil physico-chemical properties, (ii)
increase soil microbial biomass and activity (iii), play a biopesticide role to control
soil borne diseases. Many authors investigated the different doses of MSW compost
and examined their effects on soil microbial biomass available on the vertical and
horizontal distribution. However MSW compost application could contaminated
agricultural soil by heavy metals, toxic compounds and pathogens. Concerning the
heavy metals pollution of agricultural soils is related essentially to crop quality and
human health. In this review we tried to show the different investigations concern-
ing the progress of microbial biomass following the MSW compost application in
agricultural soil.
Keywords
Soil microbial biomass
·
MSW composing process
·
Organic matter
10.1
Introduction
Municipal solid wastes microorganisms (fungi and bacteria) are responsible for
degradation and biological transformation of organic matter. These microorgan-
isms degradation is responsible for temperature increase in wastes (Mustin
1987
).
Consequently composting is known of heat treatment (sanitization of compost)
