Unveiling the Efficiency of Psychrophillic Aporrectodea caliginosa in Deciphering the Nutrients from Dalweed and Cow Manure with Bio-Optimization of Coprolites

Tahir Sheikh, Zahoor Baba, Sadaf Iqbal, Basharat Hamid, Fehim J. Wani, M. Anwar Bhat and Sheikh Suhail
Additional contact information
Tahir Sheikh: Faculty of Agriculture, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology Kashmir, Wadura 193201, India
Zahoor Baba: Faculty of Agriculture, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology Kashmir, Wadura 193201, India
Sadaf Iqbal: Faculty of Agriculture, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology Kashmir, Wadura 193201, India
Basharat Hamid: Department of Environmental Science, University of Kashmir, Hazratbal, Srinagar 190006, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Fehim J. Wani: Division of Agriculture Economics & Statistics, FoA, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology Kashmir, Wadura 193201, India
M. Anwar Bhat: Faculty of Agriculture, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology Kashmir, Wadura 193201, India
Sheikh Suhail: Department of Biochemistry, University of Kashmir, Hazratbal, Srinagar 190006, Jammu and Kashmir, India

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 10, 1-13

Abstract: 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 (CM 100 , DW 100 , CM 80 :DW 20 , CM 60 :DW 40 , CM 40 :DW 60 and CM 20 :DW 80 ) and castings harvested were analyzed for the following parameters: pH, TOC, TN, NO 3 - 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 (CM 60 :DW 40 followed by CM 80 :DW 20 ) 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 CM 100 , and C:S ratio by 67% in DW 100 . 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 CM 60 :DW 40 . Results also showed that the earthworm population and biomass significantly increased with the highest respective increments of 57.53% and 74.88% in CM 60 :DW 40 over initial values. Moreover, the highest number of cocoons (95.67 ± 1.17) were recorded within CM 60 :DW 40 and the lowest in the control (43.33 ± 1.53). Dehydrogenase and fluorescein diacetate activities were inconsistent with the highest in CM 40 :DW 60 (64.64%) and CM 20 :DW 80 (63.54%) respectively over the initial substrates, while highest urease activity (74.40%) was observed from CM 100 . 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.

Keywords: Aporrectodea caliginosa; dalweed; cow manure; cold tolerant; nutrient recovery; reproductive performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/10/5338/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/10/5338/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:10:p:5338-:d:551937

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().