Slowed down nitrogen mineralization under bacterial community-driven conditions by adding inhibitors during rice straw composting

The aim of this paper was to confirm the role of inhibitors addition, namely adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and malonic acid (MA), on nitrogen availability during rice straw (RS) composting. The results showed that inhibitors addition slowed down the mineralization of ammonium nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen compared to CK. Mean-while, amino sugar nitrogen and hydrolysable unknown nitrogen contents in ATP and MA treatments were higher, indicating that their addition improved the retention of organic nitrogen components. Furthermore, inhibitors additions attenuated the responsive relationship between bacterial communities and nitrogen com-ponents. The main reason was that the addition changed the bacterial community structure of RS compost. The final structural equation verified that inhibitors addition enhanced conversion between nitrogen components, that was, to complex nitrogen components to improve the quality of compost, and the remodeling of bacterial community played an important role. Therefore, adding inhibitors had a driving effect on promoting nitrogen sequestration.

Automated summary

This study confirmed the role of inhibitors addition, ATP and MA, in nitrogen availability during rice straw composting. The results showed that inhibitors addition slowed down ammonium and nitrate nitrogen mineralization rates and improved the retention of organic nitrogen components. The addition of inhibitors also altered bacterial community structure and enhanced conversion between nitrogen components, leading to improved compost quality.