A municipal landfill contains different waste materials that support the growth of a diverse community of enzyme-secreting microorganisms that degrade and detoxify the wastes. The present study aimed to explore psychrotrophic protein-degrading bacteria for converting proteinaceous waste into the nutrient-rich end product of agricultural applications. During the study, twenty five morphologically different psychrotrophic proteolytic bacteria were isolated from the landfill soil samples using standard serial dilution and spread plate techniques. The isolates showed variable protease activities at different incubation temperatures (5 °C, 10 °C, 15 °C, and 20 °C). However, isolate PB2 showed significantly (p < 0.05) highest protease activity (1.53 ± 0.8 1U/mL) at 20 °C with corresponding hydrolysis zone of average diameter of 17 ± 2 mm through primary screening. The isolate (PB2) also exhibited the hydrolysis of several protein substrates, including elastin and gelatin. According to protease inhibition studies, the extracellular proteases released by isolating PB2 were primarily serine and metalloproteases. The morphological, biochemical, and molecular characterization (16S rRNA) demonstrated that the isolate had 99

GOOD SOIL can raise the quantity and quality of food. However, the land quality has worsened due to various anthropogenic activities. The present study aimed to assess the effects of land use systems on soil quality over time through specific indicators. A top 30 cm soil sample from six land uses (forest, pasture, orchard, vegetable, maize, and paddy) was analyzed for soil quality index using Principal Component Analysis. The results revealed the highest organic carbon (20.94 +/- 1.85 g kg(-1)), N (537.50 +/- 16.7 kg ha(-1)), and P2O5 (36.51 +/- 1.62 kg ha(-1)) in paddy-based land uses while the minimum OC (8.63 +/- 1.23 g kg(-1)), N (290.30 +/- 1.8 kg ha(-1)) and K2O (201.36 +/- 6.2 kg ha(-1)) respectively with lowest P2O5 (24.22 +/- 1.21 kg ha(-1)) in maize. The forest system showed dense macrofauna (1498 ind. m(-2)). The microbial population was found in the order of paddy>maize>vegetable>apple>pasture>forest. Particle size distribution of studied land uses varied from silty loam to clay loam. The following order of soil quality: forest>pasture>apple >vegetable>maize>paddy was found after the indexing procedure. It is concluded that further extension and turning of natural forests to agriculture will lead to a more significant loss of stored carbon from soils.

Globally, more than 2 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) are generated each year, with that amount anticipated to reach around 3.5 billion tonnes by 2050. On a worldwide scale, food and green waste contribute the major proportion of MSW, which accounts for 44% of global waste, followed by recycling waste (38%), which includes plastic, glass, cardboard, and paper, and 18% of other materials. Population growth, urbanization, and industrial expansion are the principal drivers of the ever-increasing production of MSW across the world. Among the different practices employed for the management of waste, landfill disposal has been the most popular and easiest method across the world. Waste management practices differ significantly depending on the income level. In high-income nations, only 2% of waste is dumped, whereas in low-income nations, approximately 93% of waste is burned or dumped. However, the unscientific disposal of waste in landfills causes the generation of gases, heat, and leachate and results in a variety of ecotoxicological problems, including global warming, water pollution, fire hazards, and health effects that are hazardous to both the environment and public health. Therefore, sustainable management of MSW and landfill leachate is critical, necessitating the use of more advanced techniques to lessen waste production and maximize recycling to assure environmental sustainability. The present review provides an updated overview of the global perspective of municipal waste generation, composition, landfill heat and leachate formation, and ecotoxicological effects, and also discusses integrated-waste management approaches for the sustainable management of municipal waste and landfill leachate.

Great emphasis has recently been given to the environmental impacts caused by chemical surfactants due to their toxicity and difficulty in being degraded in the environment [1]. Increasing environmental concerns, the advance in biotechnology and the emergence of more stringent laws have led to biosurfactants being a potential alternative to the chemical surfac‐ tants available on the market [2, 3]. Although biosurfactants have promising use in bioreme‐ diation processes, their industrial scale production is currently difficult due to high rawmaterial costs, high processing costs and low manufacturing output [3]. As a result, the current research challenges are to increase the yield and to reduce the cost of raw materials [4].

Himalayan ecosystem is characterized by its fragile climate with rich repositories of biodiversity. Waste collection and disposal are becoming increasingly difficult due to topographical variations. Aporrectodea caligenosa , a versatile psychrophillic soil dweller, is a useful biocatalyst with potent bio-augmented capability for waste treatment at low temperatures. Microcosm experiments were conducted to elucidate the comprehensive nature of biogenic nitrogen transformation to NH 4 + and NO 3 − produced by coupling of earthworm-microbes. Higher biogenic recovery of NH 4 + -N from coprolites of garden soil (47.73 ± 1.16%) and Himalayan goat manure (86.32 ± 0.92%) with an increment of 14.12 and 47.21% respectively over their respective control (without earthworms) with a linear decline beyond 4th week of incubation was reported. NO 3 – -N recovery progressively sustained in garden soil and goat manure coprolites during entire incubation with highest 81.81 ± 0.45 and 87.20 ± 1.08 µg-N g −1 dry weight recorded in 6th and 5th week of incubation respectively and peak increments as 38.58 and 53.71% relative to respective control (without earthworms). Declined NH 4 + –N in coprolites at low temperature (15.0 ± 2.0 °C) evidenced increased nitrification rates by taking over the process by abundant nitrifying microbes. Steady de-nitrification with progressive incubation on an average was 16.95 ± 0.46 ng-N g −1 per week and 21.08 ± 0.87 ng-N g −1 per week compared to 14.03 ± 0.58 ng-N g −1 per week and 4.50 ± 0.31 ng-N g −1 per week in respective control treatments. Simultaneous heterotrophic nitrification and aerobic denitrification (SHNAD) was found to be a prominent bioprocess at low temperature that resulted in high and stable total nitrogen and nitrate accumulation from garden soil and goat manure with relative recovery efficiency of 11.12%, 14.97% and 14.20%; 19.34%. A. caligenosa shows promising prospects for mass applicability in biogenic N removal from manure of Himalayan goat.

The municipal solid waste land filling results in generation of highly toxic leachate that has significant impacts on different components of environment. Various processes are available for the treatment of landfill leachate; however, biological treatment is considered as the environmentally friendly technology. In this context, the present study was undertaken to isolate landfill bacteria and evaluate their leachate degradation potential. The physicochemical analysis of leachate samples revealed that the leachate was highly concentrated with values of different parameters above the permissible limit. Further, the biological analysis resulted in the isolation of five morphologically different bacterial isolates at lower ambient temperature and they were screened via their degradation potential of leachate samples. The flask containing the leachate and inoculated with the isolate LF3 showed significantly (p < 0.05) maximum percentage of reduction of different physicochemical parameters, viz. EC (89.2%), BOD (87.3%), COD (90.6%), TKN (86.6%) and TP (95.0%) after 48 h. Based on biochemical and 16SrRNA sequence analysis, the isolate LF3 was identified as Bacillus pumilus with similarity of 98%. The application of isolate LF3 was found to be a viable strategy for biological treatment of landfill leachate in vitro and might potentially be encouraged for large-scale waste water treatment.

Cyanobacteria dominate microbiota in ice-based habitats and contend with extreme fluctuation in temperature and lack of liquid water, which poses severe limitations (freezing and desiccation stress) to their growth and survival. Decline in carbon sinks would result in faster accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere and is expected to increase by 18.05% between 2022 and 2050 contributing to future climate change. Anthropogenic CO2 emissions could be even much higher if terrestrial biosphere would not pull off it as a sink by absorbing 33 +/- 9% CO2. Cyanobacterial biosequestration in colder habitats is critical because of less water body turnover due to low temperature. These organisms show amazing structural and functional diversity adopting cyclic electron flow (CEF) for sustenance under lower temperature ecosystem. CEF enhances ATP: NADPH ratio during photosynthesis and balances the reductant prerequisites of biosynthesis while maintaining the redox balance of CEF. ATP-binding cassette dependent is an important pathway for production of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in case of capsular polysaccharides. The review proposes NDH-1MS' an important energy yielding complex capable of optimizing CO2 acquisition and photosynthesis when the cells are under cold stress. The review also highlights the formidable sub-cellar role of EPS, influencing cyanobacterial physiology and survival in cold ecosystems.

Generalized crop-specific or regional blanket fertilizer recommendations are among the primary dilemmas for sustainable agriculture resulting in low fertilizer use efficiency, nutritional imbalance in crops, while raising economic and environmental concerns. Innovative fertilizer formulations with balanced nutrient ratios customized to the crop requirements with temporal release properties are needed to make sustainable agriculture practically possible. For an example, the demonstration of the advantages of delayed differentiation, through reverse blending (RB) in small blending units at the end user level may be useful to increase the sustainability of agriculture. This review discusses how to use innovative fertilizer procedures in the fertilizer supply chain to optimize the supply of crop nutrition to boost crop production and safeguard the environment from the drawbacks of blanket fertilizer applications. This review also aims to identify critical elements that influence fertilizer use efficiency and fertilizer customization to improve fertilizer recommendations for future (precision) agriculture, and to assess the role and suitability of RB in the production of customized fertilizers. We reviewed typical case studies and summarized the role of delayed differentiation in the production of field fertilizers through RB. Customized fertilizers could be produced by using smallest sets of canonical basic inputs (CBI). CBI acronym offers the smallest set of chemical composite materials that can be used as a blending input for the production of customized fertilizers. Reverse blending (RB) accelerates the attainment of large flows by decreasing those flows to discover chemically stable reactions for the creation of novel fertilizer formulations. RB drives the high flow massification to low by managing the flow from 100 to 1.57%. RB requires a minimum of 10–15 CBIs (± 0.05%) to meet out nutritional requirements of many crops. Delayed differentiation through RB will involve exploration of known percentage of CBI in terms of N, P, K, Zn, B2O3, and filler to achieve a desirable fertilizer. The tailored fertilizers used for basal application must be granular, with at least 90% of the content ranging between 1 and 4-mm IS sieve, with no more than 5% lying below 1 mm. Moisture content should not be present at more than 1.5%. The paper demonstrates RB as a quadratic model approach where blending is based on geographical area, enabling the crops to achieve target yields through customized fertilizer solution with higher agronomic (kg/ha of N, P, K, Zn, B2O3) applicability. We understand that innovative fertilizer strategies must be developed to significantly reduce unforeseen negative effects on the environment and human health caused by the improper use of fertilizers.

Two million tonnes of pesticides are currently used globally to improve crop production, yet these pesticides induce adverse effects on soil quality and biodiversity. Moreover, less than 1% of pesticides reach the target pests, while the rest contaminate the surrounding environment. In particular, earthworms are exposed to pesticides and are thus an ideal biological model for ecotoxicological research. Here, we review acute and sub-lethal effects of pesticides on earthworms. We found that pesticides alter growth, reproduction, behaviour, essential enzymes, and DNA of earthworms, even at low pesticide concentrations. These sub-lethal biomarkers allow to evaluate the overall response of an earthworm to pesticides, and to identify the risk for other non-target organisms.

There is an immense demand for vermicomposting employing psychrophilic vermiculture (Aporrectodea caliginosa) for management of wastes under the Himalayan ecosystem. Dalweed (weeds from the world-famous urban Dal Lake) and cow manure (CM) are cheaply and abundantly available bio resources in Kashmir valley. Dalweed (DW), disposed of in the heart of the city, ascribes unpleasant effects on tourism and the natural ecosystem. Initial substrate mixtures of DW and CM with different ratios (CM100, DW100, CM80:DW20, CM60:DW40, CM40:DW60 and CM20:DW80) and castings harvested were analyzed for the following parameters: pH, TOC, TN, NO3- P, K, Fe, Zn, C:N, C:P, and C:S ratio. The results of a 56day study revealed in consistency and disparity towards the bio-optimization of coprolites depending upon the type of waste residue and mixture ratio used. Treatments with medium to low dalweed residues (CM60:DW40 followed by CM80:DW20) were found to be optimum and significantly primed chemical properties of castings using A. caligenosa. C:N, C:P, and C:S ratios showed a non-linear response with maximum decrease in C:N ratio by 35%, C:P ratio by 38% in CM100, and C:S ratio by 67% in DW100. Humification ratio, humification index, and percent humic acids were changed across all the treatments with the highest respective values of 21.33 ± 1.05, 11.33 ± 0.76, and 47.83 ± 0.76 for CM60:DW40. Results also showed that the earthworm population and biomass significantly increased with the highest respective increments of 57.53% and 74.88% in CM60:DW40 over initial values. Moreover, the highest number of cocoons (95.67 ± 1.17) were recorded within CM60:DW40 and the lowest in the control (43.33 ± 1.53). Dehydrogenase and fluorescein diacetate activities were inconsistent with the highest in CM40:DW60 (64.64%) and CM20:DW80 (63.54%) respectively over the initial substrates, while highest urease activity (74.40%) was observed from CM100. The results highlight the role of A. caliginosa in sustainable transformation of CM and DW with insightful, beneficial, and priming impacts on castings for its agronomic value.

This review presents a comprehensive and systematic study of the field of bacterial plant biostimulants and considers the fundamental and innovative principles underlying this technology. Plant biostimulants are an important tool for modern agriculture as part of an integrated crop management (ICM) system, helping make agriculture more sustainable and resilient. Plant biostimulants contain substance(s) and/or microorganisms whose function when applied to plants or the rhizosphere is to stimulate natural processes to enhance plant nutrient uptake, nutrient use efficiency, tolerance to abiotic stress, biocontrol, and crop quality. The use of plant biostimulants has gained substantial and significant heed worldwide as an environmentally friendly alternative to sustainable agricultural production. At present, there is an increasing curiosity in industry and researchers about microbial biostimulants, especially bacterial plant biostimulants (BPBs), to improve crop growth and productivity. The BPBs that are based on PGPR (plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria) play plausible roles to promote/stimulate crop plant growth through several mechanisms that include (i) nutrient acquisition by nitrogen (N2) fixation and solubilization of insoluble minerals (P, K, Zn), organic acids and siderophores; (ii) antimicrobial metabolites and various lytic enzymes; (iii) the action of growth regulators and stress-responsive/induced phytohormones; (iv) ameliorating abiotic stress such as drought, high soil salinity, extreme temperatures, oxidative stress, and heavy metals by using different modes of action; and (v) plant defense induction modes. Presented here is a brief review emphasizing the applicability of BPBs as an innovative exertion to fulfill the current food crisis.

Soil potassium (K) supplement depends intensively on the application of chemical fertilizers, which have substantial harmful environmental effects. However, some bacteria can act as inoculants by converting unavailable and insoluble K forms into plant-accessible forms. Such bacteria are an eco-friendly approach for enhancing plant K absorption and consequently reducing utilization of chemical fertilization. Therefore, the present research was undertaken to isolate, screen, and characterize the K solubilizing bacteria (KSB) from the rhizosphere soils of northern India. Overall, 110 strains were isolated, but only 13 isolates showed significant K solubilizing ability by forming a halo zone on solid media. They were further screened for K solubilizing activity at 0 °C, 1 °C, 3 °C, 5 °C, 7 °C, 15 °C, and 20 °C for 5, 10, and 20 days. All the bacterial isolates showed mineral K solubilization activity at these different temperatures. However, the content of K solubilization increased with the upsurge in temperature and period of incubation. The isolate KSB (Grz) showed the highest K solubilization index of 462.28% after 48 h of incubation at 20 °C. The maximum of 23.38 µg K/mL broth was solubilized by the isolate KSB (Grz) at 20 °C after 20 days of incubation. Based on morphological, biochemical, and molecular characterization (through the 16S rDNA approach), the isolate KSB (Grz) was identified as Mesorhizobium sp. The majority of the strains produced HCN and ammonia. The maximum indole acetic acid (IAA) (31.54 µM/mL) and cellulase (390 µM/mL) were produced by the isolate KSB (Grz). In contrast, the highest protease (525.12 µM/mL) and chitinase (5.20 µM/mL) activities were shown by standard strain Bacillus mucilaginosus and KSB (Gmr) isolate, respectively.

Background and Objective: Land-filling is considered as a common method for disposal of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and the landfills are regarded as repository of various groups of important microbes growing on organic waste materials.In temperate regions due to lower environmental temperatures the landfill sites are inhabited by a distinct group of bacteria that utilize the wastes as energy sources through the secretion of important cold active enzymes.Hence, the present study was taken to examine physicochemical and bacteriological characterization of organic municipal waste samples collected form landfill site.Materials and Methods: A total of 15 waste samples mixed with soil were randomly collected from the landfill site.The waste samples were analyzed for various physicochemical parameters by following available standard methodology.The isolation of bacteria was done by following serial dilution and spread plate method at temperature of 15EC, pH 7.0 and incubation period of 48 h.Results: The results of the study revealed that the landfill wastes at the surface were partially decomposed by the presence of diverse group of cold active bacterial isolates.The morphological characterization of the isolates revealed that most of bacteria belonged to genus Bacillus (gram+) majority of which produced two important types of cold active enzymes (CMCases, proteases) in response to different substrates (carboxymethyl cellulose and skim milk) under in vitro conditions.Conclusion: It was concluded that the landfill site acted as the repository of unique group of cold active bacteria most of which showed potential of producing multiple enzymes.The study presents a platform for further scientific investigation through microbial profiling of landfill site that may lead to discovery of some novel microbes of high enzyme producing potential of scientific importance.

The municipal solid waste is composed of 40–50% of cellulosic material that is the most abundant biomass and carbon source on earth. In the present study waste samples were used for the isolation of cellulolytic bacteria on Carboxy Methyl Cellulose agar media (CMC) at pH of 7.0, temperature of 30°C after 48 hours by using serial dilution and pour plate method. A total of 35 bacteria were isolated out of which a total of only 15 isolates showed cellulolytic activity by forming zone of hydrolysis on CMC agar media. All the isolates were screened for cellulase activities by Congo Red Dilution Assay (qualitative enzyme activity) and dinitrosalicylic acid (DNS) method was used for quantitative cellulase activity. Results of congo red dilution assay revealed that all the isolates were significant cellulase producers and the isolate I7 was significantly most efficient by forming hydrolysis zone diameter and zone-colony ratio of 33mm and 3.3respectively after 72 hours of incubation period. Further results of quantitative screening of the isolates were in accordance with the qualitative screening and the isolate I7 again showed significantly maximum cellulase activity of 3.0U/ml. Based on morphological and biochemical characteristics, the efficient bacterial isolate I7 was identified as Bacillus sp. Further the optimization of process parameters was done for the isolate and the optimum parameters were: pH of 7.0, temperature 30°C, Incubation time 72 hours, Glucose as carbon source and 1% CMC concentration as substrate. It was concluded that the landfill site houses a diverse group of cellulose degrading bacteria with significant cellulase production potential and the isolates could be used for enhanced composting of cellulose rich municipal solid waste or could have industrial applications.

The temperate climatic regions face the problem of waste accumulation due to lower environmental temperatures. However, these regions harbor cold active microbes viz. psychrotrophic proteolytic bacteria that play an important role in the degradation of protenaceous materials of the waste stream. Hence in the present study psychrotrophic proteolytic bacteria were isolated from waste samples collected from landfill site by using random sampling method under environmental temperature of 10oC. By using serial dilution and spread plate technique a total of 8 morphologically different psychrotrophic proteolytic bacteria were isolated on skim milk agar media at pH of 7.0 and temperature of 10°C after 48hours. Under in-vitro conditions all the isolates produced significant quantities of protease over the control and diameters of hydrolysis zones ranged between 2 to 18 mm at temperature range of 5 to 20oC and after 72 hours. The corresponding quantitative protease activities of the isolates was significant that ranged between 0.5 to 2.25 U/ml and the isolate PB2 was most efficient with highest protease activity of 2.25U/ml at 20oC. Based on 16SrRNA analysis the isolate was identified as Pseudomonas florescence with 96% similarity. It was concluded that the isolates can grow in wide ranges of temperature and could be used for enhanced decomposition of organic wastes during lower temperature conditions in cold regions. Further the isolates could have industrial applications due to the production of cold active proteases that would help economic benefits through energy conservation.

The present investigation was carried out at the experimental field of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir during the years 2014-15 and 2015-16 to study the combined effect of nitrogen (0, 75, 150 kg ha-1), phosphorus (0, 50, 100kg ha-1) and biofertilizers (no inoculants, Azotobacter sp., Bacillus sp., Pseudomonas sp. and Glomus sp.) on macro and micro nutrient uptake in strawberry. The experiment was laid out in completely randomised design (factorial) with 45 treatment combinations and 5 replications. Treatment (T42) recorded significantly higher nitrogen uptake of 0.55g and 0.69g in 2014-15 and 2015-16 respectively. Higher value of phosphorus uptake (0.11g) was recorded under the treatments T41, T42, T44 and T45 during the first year while as T41, T42 and T45 recorded significantly higher value of 0.13g during the second year. The treatment (T44) recorded significantly higher potassium uptake to the tune of 0.68g and 0.78g in 2014-15 and 2015-16 respectively. Significantly higher uptake of zinc (11.52 ppm and 12.25 ppm), copper (4.82 ppm and 5.30 ppm), manganese (16.86 ppm and 18.40 ppm) and iron (70.93 and 76.60 ppm) during both the years of experimentation was observed under the treatment (T45).