Methanogenic community during the anaerobic digestion of different substrates and organic loading rates

Three anaerobic reactors using pig manure (PM), maize straw (MS), and a mixture of the two as substrates were compared for archaeal community structure and diversity, and for methanogens response to increased organic loading rate (OLR, expressed in the mass of volatile solid (VS)). Methanogenic archaeal richness during codigestion of pig manure with maize straw (ACE: 2412) was greater than that during the others (ACE: 1225, 1467) at an OLR of 4 g L(−1) day(−1), accompanied by high specific methane yield. Euryarchaeota and Crenarchaeota predominated during overall digestion of different substrates; with relative abundances of 63.5%–99.0% and 1.0%–36.3%, respectively. Methanosarcina was the predominant genus that accounted for 33.7%–79.8% of the archaeal community. The diversity in the PM digester decreased with increase in OLR, but increased in the MS digester. The diversity was stable during the codigestion with increased OLR. The relative abundances of hydrogenotrophic methanogens increased by 2.6 and 2.1 folds; the methanogenic community shifted from acetoclastic to hydrogenotrophic methanogens during digestion of MS, and of the mixture of MS and PM. Canonical correspondence analysis revealed a strong relationship between reactor parameters and methanogenic community.