Abstract
The white-rot fungus,
Phanerochaete chrysosporium
(
P. chrysosporium
), was inoculated during different phases of agricultural waste composting, and its effect on the fluorescence spectroscopy characteristics of humic acid (HA) was studied. The results show that the emission spectra have a sharp peak at 400 nm and a broad shoulder with the maximum centered at 460 nm. The excitation spectra have two peaks and exhibit red shift (shift to longer wavelengths) at 470 nm. The synchronous scan spectra present a number of peaks and shoulders, and the peaks at shorter wavelengths disappear gradually and form a shoulder. At the final stage of composting, the fluorescence spectra have similar shapes, but the fluorescence intensities decrease.
P. chrysosporium
increases the degree of aromatization and polymerization of HA when it is inoculated during the second fermentation phase, while it does not produce an obvious change on the humification degree of HA when it is inoculated during the first fermentation phase. Compared with the fluorescence spectroscopy characteristics of HA from soil, the structure of HA from compost is simpler and the activity is higher.