Table 1.
Experimental setup.
Fig 1.
Snapshots of waste turnover and the burial of ceramics by black soldier fly larvae.
Larvae of BSF (A) rapidly consume the Waste Model (WM = dog food + pig slurry) while burying ceramic sherds, whereas (B) no sign of bioturbation has been observed in the control treatments.
Fig 2.
Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) increase soil growth in comparison to treatments without larvae.
Larvae fed with the Waste Model with charcoal (WMC) presented the highest soil growth among all the treatments and waste model types. Treatments with ceramics in the absence of larvae and absolute controls showed no significant differences. Five replicates per treatment. The error bars represent the 95% confidence intervals (CI) of independent group t-tests. Treatments sharing a letter are not significantly different at the 5% level.
Fig 3.
Final total carbon concentrations as influenced by the waste model and treatments.
The presence of larvae significantly decreased soil C content relative to the other treatments. Herein, the waste model with charcoal (WMC; 5% charcoal w/w) exhibited higher C concentration than the waste model without charcoal (WM). The error bars represent the 95% confidence intervals (CI) and the red-dashed lines represent the total organic C concentration in the initial waste material.
Table 2.
Physicochemical parameters of the organic waste materials at the beginning and after 22 days after adding black soldier fly larvae.
Fig 4.
Relative distribution of the P fractions in the treatments with and without black soldier fly larvae (BSFL), ceramics, and for the waste models with (left) and without charcoal (right).
Freely exchangeable inorganic P (Pi) = resin-Pi, adsorbed Pi = bicarbonate (0.5 M NaHCO3)-and sodium hydroxide (0.5 M NaOH)-extractable Pi, organic P (Po) = bicarbonate Po + hydroxide-Po, calcium-bound P = dilute acid-extractable (1 M HCl)-P, and occluded + residual P = concentrated-acid (97% HCl) extractable P and acid-digestible P (1:3 concentrated HNO3: concentrated HCl mixture).
Fig 5.
Charcoal delays development and has a negative effect on black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) pre-pupal weight.
Charcoal (A) keeps the migration of pre-pupae constant during the duration of the experiment, whereas the waste model (WM) triggers a rapid development evident in the first migration wave that further decreases in the second and third migration waves. The WM-fed pre-pupae weight is (B) higher in all migration waves when compared to pre-pupae fed with the waste model that contains charcoal (WMC). The error bars represent the 95% confidence intervals (CI). Treatments sharing a letter are not significantly different at the 5% level.