Profiling of bacterial community in fermentation areas of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipalty Kemerburgaz Recovery and Compost plant

In this study, bacterial community were researched during 8 weeks of fermantation in İstanbul full-scale compost plant. Physico-chemical analysis and bacterial species have been made on the samples taken regulary from the area of fermentation process unit of the plant designed by tunnel composting technique and with a operation capacity of 1000 ton per day municipal solid waste. Changes in temperature, pH, moisture, C/N ratio, and bacterial community were monitored in two parallel line of composting plant.C/N ratio steadily decreased during composting and final mature compost products had a C/N ratio of less than 20. During the composting process, temperature was mostly above 55 oC and decreased to mesophilic conditions in the matured stages. The diversity and changes in the bacterial community of compost was profiled by DNA extraction and PCR-DGGE of partial 16S rRNA genes followed by their sequencing. Different types of bacteria were dominant in every stage of composting and bacterial diversity changed mainly by temperature. Bacillus species were dominant in early stages of composting while Acinetobacter and Sphingobacterium strains were detected in thermophilic and maturing stages. Thermophilic stages were more rich in bacterial diversity than mesophilic and hyperthermophilic conditions significantly changed the bacterial community.