Effect of liquid volume and microflora source on degradation rate and microbial community in corn stover degradation

Degradation is the bottleneck in the utilization of crop straw. In this paper, we screened the microbial consortia degrading corn stover from straw degrading consortia MC1 (M), sheep feces (Y), and mixtures (Q) of M, Y, and cattle feces. The effects of microflora source and liquid volume (representing dissolved oxygen) on the microbial community and degradation rate of corn stover were investigated. The results showed that the degradation rate and cellulase activity of a 200 mL liquid volume (L2) were significantly higher than that of 100 mL (L1). Microflora source had a significant effect on bacterial and fungal diversity, composition and taxa. Q and Y had higher bacterial and fungal α-diversity than that of M. The degradation rate was significantly correlated with cellulase activity but not with microbial diversity. This indicated that liquid volume had a significant effect on degradation rate while microflora source had a significant effect on microbial community in corn stover degradation.