This study employed phospholipid fatty acid analysis
(PLFA) to follow the microbial community during the composting
of MSW, nitrogen-amended MSW, and synthetic
MSW materials. Composting was accomplished at both fulland
pilot-scale facilities. To eliminate the selectional bias
associated with plating and other microbial isolation methods,
a direct lipid extraction was used to characterize the
microbial community shifts [9, 10, 27, 28]. Although not
previously used for compost, PLFA analysis has been used to
characterize the microbial communities of such diverse systems
as those in marine sediments, soils, and plant rhizospheres