Why is the optimal temperature for biological activity in soil lower than the optimal temperature for decay in a compost heap important?
Miller & Gardiner (pp. 211-214) discuss composting and make it clear that the conditions in a well-managed compost pile rarely occur in nature. Composting accelerates the humification processes, for one thing. The pathogenic organisms in compost must be destroyed, otherwise pathogens will cause disease in the plants growing in the compost or in the humans or animals consuming the plants. The compost heap is an excellent insulator, trapping the heat produced by microbes digesting the residue. As heat builds in the compost pile, a susccession of increasingly heat tolerant microbes digest the reside, killing pathogenic microbes in the processes. Heat build up occurs during the early stages of decomposition. After the pathogens are destroyed, the manager of the compost pile will aerate the pile and perhaps add fertilizer to foster the efficient decay of the remaining residue. Incidentally, microbial decomposition is fundamentally the same as “burning” the residue, a process that releases p
Related Questions
- Why is the optimal temperature for biological activity in soil lower than the optimal temperature for decay in a compost heap important?
- What are the recommended storage conditions for maintenance of optimal longer-term biological activity?
- How does the moisture content of the soil affect biological activity ?
