Insight into the mechanisms of insoluble phosphate transformation driven by the interactions of compound microbes during composting.

Phosphate-solubilizing (PS) microbes are important to improve phosphorus availability and transformation of insoluble phosphate, e.g., rock phosphate (RP). The use of phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) as inoculants have been proposed as an alternative to increase phosphate availability in RP and composting fertilizers. In this study, the effect of compound PSB coinoculation and single-strain inoculation on the transformation of insoluble phosphate were compared in a liquid medium incubation and RP-enriched composting. The goal of this study was to understand the possible mechanisms of insoluble phosphate transformation driven by the interactions of compound PS microbes during composting. The correlations between organic acids production, P-solubilization capacity and bacterial community with PSB inoculation were investigated in the RP-enriched composting by redundancy analysis (RDA) and structural equation models (SEM). Results showed that both single-strain and compound PSB inoculants had a high P-solubilization capacity in medium, but the proportion of Olsen P to total P in composts with inoculating compound PS microbes was 7% higher than that with single strain. PS inoculants could secrete different organic acids and lactic was the most abundant. However, RDA and SEM suggested that oxalic might play an important role on PS activity, inducing RP solubilization by changing pH during composting. Interaction between compound microbes could intensify the acidolysis process for insoluble P transformation compared to the single strain. Our findings help to understand the roles of complex microbial inoculants and regulate P availability of insoluble phosphate for the agricultural purposes.