Upcycling Human Excrement: The Gut Microbiome to Soil Microbiome Axis
Jeff Meilander, Chloe Herman, Andrew Manley, Georgia Augustine, Dawn Birdsell, Evan Bolyen, Kimberly R. Celona, Hayden Coffey, Jill Cocking, Teddy Donoghue, Alexis Draves, Daryn Erickson, Marissa Foley, Liz Gehret, Johannah Hagen, Crystal Hepp, Parker Ingram, David John, Katarina Kadar, Paul Keim, Victoria Lloyd, Christina Osterink, Victoria Queeney, Diego Ramirez, Antonio Romero, Megan C. Ruby, Jason W. Sahl, Sydni Soloway, Nathan E. Stone, Shannon Trottier, Kaleb Van Orden, Alexis Painter, Sam Wallace, Larissa Wilcox, Colin V. Wood, Jaiden Yancey, J. Gregory Caporaso
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Human excrement composting (HEC) is a sustainable strategy for human excrement (HE) management that recycles nutrients and mitigates health risks while reducing reliance on freshwater, fossil fuels, and fertilizers. We present a comprehensive microbial time series analysis of HEC and show that the initial gut-like microbiome of HEC systems transitions to a microbiome similar to soil and traditional compost in fifteen biological replicates tracked weekly for one year.