Environmental Risks and Agricultural Benefits of Soil Amended with Anaerobic Digestate.

Anaerobic Digestate is a by-product of anaerobic digestion and can be used as a fertilizer. Few studies on digestate and its physicochemical properties have shown that the amendment of soil with anaerobic digestate represents an alternative for sustainable agricultural production and/or influences soil fertility. However, these focused on soil organic matter content, soil pH, soil carbon, and nitrogen. Apart from the benefits, there may be environmental risks/impacts on soil biota such as plants, earthworms, and microbes. Thus, studies should explore the impact of anaerobic digestate on plants and ecosystem engineers (microbes, earthworms, enchytraeids, and collembolans) to ascertain its agricultural benefits and/or environmental risks.