A microbial community snapshot of windrows from a commercial composting facility

The effect of depth on compost microbial communities is unclear but could be relevant to the management of windrows at commercial facilities. DNA extracted from 64 compost samples from seven windrows at a commercial facility were analyzed via deep 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The relative abundance of eight to nine genera was affected by depth during the transition from cooling to maturation phases between 4 and 6 months, whereas very few genera (0-1) showed a depth dependence in young, actively managed windrows or in mature windrows older than 10 months. Seven novel bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were detected in compost DNA and also in publicly available compost metagenomes. A compost metagenome was used to construct a metagenome-assembled genome for most of the abundant uncharacterized OTU in our samples and suggests its involvement in carbon cycling.