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Transformations of Sawdust in the Course of its Decomposition Under the Influence of Coprinus ephemerus¹

ABSTRACT

Sawdusts of jack pine, sugar maple, and red oak were treated with anhydrous ammonia, neutralized with H₃PO₄, enriched with K₂SO₄, and inoculated with Coprinus ephemerus. Compost mixtures were prepared in earthenware jars in greenhouse cultures at 2-week intervals to permit simultaneous analysis of composts at various stages of decomposition.

The results of chromatographic analysis indicated that C. ephemerus is not selective in its sugar utilization, although it consumes hemicellulose somewhat earlier than alpha-cellulose. A chromatogram of the hydrolysate of C. ephemerus showed almost exclusively glucose.

The course of fermentation of pine and maple sawdust was characterized by a decrease in the cold water extractables and the alcohol-benzene solubles. Oak sawdust, however, gained in alcohol-benzene solubles. Both oak and maple sawdust showed an appreciable loss of holocellulose and lignin methoxyls, but a considerable increase in lignin and base exchange capacity. Pine sawdust attained a nearly 100% increase in base exchange capacity but failed to reveal a clear picture of transformations in its structural building blocks. The consistent increase in the base exchange capacity in decomposed sawdust of all types investigated assures the values of the organism in the preparation of soil-improving organic fertilizers.

¹ Contribution from the Soils Department, Wisconsin Agr. Exp. Station, Madison, Wis., in cooperation with the State Conservation Department and the Institute of Paper Chemistry, Appleton, Wis. Publication approved by the director of the Wisconsin Agr. Exp. Sta. Presented before Division V-A, Soil Science Society of America, St. Paul, Minn., Nov. 10, 1954.

² Research Assistant in Soils, University of Wisconsin. The author expresses his gratitude to Dr. S. A. Wilde of the University of Wisconsin and to Dr. Louis E. Wise and Dr. B. L. Browning of the Institute of Paper Chemistry for helpful suggestions during the course of this investigation.

Received for publication October 24, 1954.