Heribert Insam

University of Innsbruck | UIBK · Institute of Microbiology

In this eight-year grassland field trial, we compared the fertilization effects of biomass ashes (BMAs) and carbonated lime (CaCO3) in combined application with cattle slurry (CS). Our study focused on plant coverage, forage yield, and quality, as well as soil physicochemical and microbiological properties. The fertilization strategies included CS...

Wastewater-based epidemiology has garnered considerable research interest, concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. Restrictive public health interventions and mobility limitations are measures to avert a rising case prevalence. The current study integrates WBE monitoring strategies, Google mobility data, and restriction information to assess the epidemio...

Eminent in pandemic management is accurate information on infection dynamics to plan for timely installation of control measures and vaccination campaigns. Despite huge efforts in diagnostic testing of individuals, the underestimation of the actual number of SARS-CoV-2 infections remains significant due to the large number of undocumented cases. In...

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the necessity for highly interdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder collaboration to enable effective public health practice and response. The application of wastewater monitoring to support the pandemic response was demonstrated quickly, leveraging existing scientific and engineering capability to develop rapidly metho...

Eminent in pandemic management is accurate information on infection dynamics to plan for timely installation of control measures and vaccination campaigns. Despite huge efforts in clinical testing of individuals, the underestimation of the actual number of SARS-CoV-2 infections remains significant due to the large number of undocumented cases. In t...

Background The growing global population increases the demand for protein, while the management of organic waste is becoming more challenging. Alternative protein sources are needed to reduce the negative environmental impact of food production. Lately, the black soldier fly (BSF) has been proposed as an ideal animal protein substitute due to its a...

Digesters at water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) operating at different temperatures within the mesophilic and thermophilic temperature range is a flexibilization concept to contribute to heat management. Four 25 L digesters were fed with sewage sludge from a municipal WRRF and were operated at 37, 43, 47 and 53 °C, respectively, to describe...

The chapter addresses the source materials for composting processes, the microbes and phases involved in the process and quality criteria for composts. The focus is on composting in its common meaning, and two fauna-driven processes involving compost worms and the black soldier fly. Further, some inorganic amendments like biomass ashes and biochar...

Biomass degradation by microorganisms may cause major losses during the storage of wood chips for energy production. Poplar wood chips from short rotation coppices are especially prone to degradation with dry matter losses (DML) of up to 25% within a storage period, emphasizing the need for countermeasures. Therefore, we investigated the potential...

Enormous amounts of food waste (FW) are produced worldwide, requiring efficient disposal strategies, both economically and ecologically. Anaerobic digestion to produce biomethane is among the most promising strategies, but requires proper solutions for storage and delivery of the waste material. Here, a decentralized system for demand-oriented FW s...

Wastewater-based epidemiology is widely applied in Austria since April 2020 to monitor the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. With a steadily increasing number of monitored wastewater facilities, 123 plants covering roughly 70 % of the 9 million population were monitored as of August 2022. In this study, the SARS-CoV-2 viral concentrations in raw sewage were ana...

Since the start of the 2019 pandemic, wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has proven to be a valuable tool for monitoring the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2. With methods and infrastructure being settled, it is time to expand the potential of this tool to a wider range of pathogens. We used over 500 archived RNA extracts from a WBE program for SARS-CoV-2...

The increasing global population leads to a soaring demand for protein for food and feed, and also challenges in organic waste management are growing. All this leads to environmental stress, causing biodiversity loss and an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Alternative and sustainable animal protein sources are needed to reduce the negative env...

Agrarian production generates approximately 190 million tons of agro-industrial by-products (AIBP) per year that are often disposed of without proper treatment, causing health hazards and environmental pollution. The black soldier fly (BSF; Hermetia illucens) has gained popularity as an organic waste recycler owing to its suitability for large-scal...

Anaerobic fungi (AF), belonging to the phylum Neocallimastigomycota, are a pivotal component of the digestive tract microbiome of various herbivorous animals. In the last decade, the diversity of AF has rapidly expanded due to the exploration of numerous (novel) habitats. Studies aiming at understanding the role of AF require robust and reliable is...

Anaerobic fungi (AF, phylum Neocallimastigomycota) are best known for their ability to anaerobically degrade recalcitrant lignocellulosic biomass through mechanic and enzymatic means. While their biotechnological potential is well-recognized, applied research on AF is still hampered by the time-consuming and cost-intensive laboratory routines requi...

Storage of woody biomass in large wood chip piles is unavoidable for biotechnological applications, but comes along with considerable biomass-, energy- and thus, economic losses due to exothermic reactions and microbial degradation. The homogeneous amendment of the storage piles with an alkaline stabilization agent, calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2), was...

SARS-CoV-2 surveillance by wastewater-based epidemiology is poised to provide a complementary approach to sequencing individual cases. However, robust quantification of variants and de novo detection of emerging variants remains challenging for existing strategies. We deep sequenced 3,413 wastewater samples representing 94 municipal catchments, cov...

Wastewater based epidemiology is recognized as one of the monitoring pillars, providing essential information for pandemic management. Central in the methodology are data modelling concepts for both communicating the monitoring results but also for analysis of the signal. It is due to the fast development of the field that a range of modelling conc...

Anaerobic digestion is a common procedure of treating sewage sludge at wastewater treatment plants. However, plants differ in terms of the number of reactors and, in case of several reactors, their operation mode. To confirm the flexibility of well adapted, full-scale anaerobic digestion plants, we monitored the physicochemical process conditions o...

Sidestream partial nitritation and deammonification (pN/A) of high-strength ammonia wastewater is a well-established technology. Its expansion to the mainstream is, however mainly impeded by poor retention of anaerobic ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AnAOB), insufficient repression of nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) and difficult control of soluble ch...

Slope exposure is known to affect soil biogeochemical processes in mountainous forest ecosystems, but little attention has yet been paid to its influence at a soil aggregate scale. Therefore, we evaluated the effects of slope exposure (north- vs south-facing slope) on the physico-chemical and microbiological properties of bulk soil and dry-sieved a...

Wastewater based epidemiology is recognized as one of the monitoring pillars, providing essential information for pandemic management. Central in the methodology are data modelling concepts for both communicating the monitoring results but also for analysis of the signal. It is due to the fast development of the field that a range of modelling conc...

SARS-CoV-2 surveillance is crucial to identify variants with altered epidemiological properties. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) provides an unbiased and complementary approach to sequencing individual cases. Yet, national WBE surveillance programs have not been widely implemented and data analyses remain challenging. We deep-sequenced 2,093 wa...

The new coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is known to be also shed through feces, which makes wastewater-based surveillance possible, independent of symptomatic cases and unbiased by any testing strategies and frequencies. We investigated the entire population of the Principality of Liechtenstein with samples from the wastewater treatment plant Bendern (s...

A globally increased demand for fuels and environmental concerns regarding fossil sources call for sustainable alternatives. Fast pyrolysis is a promising approach for converting different types of biomass to renewable Fast Pyrolysis Bio-Oil (FPBO) that can be used for heating, power generation and mobility. Side-products emerging from the process...

Wastewater-based epidemiology is a recognised source of information for pandemic management. In this study, we investigated the correlation between a SARS-CoV-2 signal derived from wastewater sampling and COVID-19 incidence values monitored by means of individual testing programs. The dataset used in the study is composed of timelines (duration app...

SARS-CoV-2 wastewater epidemiology suffers from uncertainties concerning sample storage. We show the effect of the storage of wastewater on the detectable SARS-CoV-2 load. Storage at 4 °C for up to 9 days had no significant effect, while storage at −20 °C led to a significant reduction in gene copy numbers.

In the case of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic management, wastewater-based epidemiology aims to derive information on the infection dynamics by monitoring virus concentrations in the wastewater. However, due to the intrinsic random fluctuations of the viral signal in wastewater caused by several influencing factors that cannot be determined in detail (e.g. di...

Microorganisms, like bacteria and fungi, are becoming an emerging resource for the development of eco-sustainable plastic degradation and recycling processes. In this study, the rumen content from cattle (Bos taurus) was investigated regarding synthetic polyester hydrolyzing enzymes based on the fact that the diet of ruminants may contain natural p...

In the case of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic management, wastewater-based epidemiology aims to derive information on the infection dynamics by monitoring virus concentrations in the wastewater. However, due to the intrinsic random fluctuations of the viral signal in the wastewater (due to e.g., dilution; transport and fate processes in sewer system; variatio...

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of an alkaline additive on the storage of wood chips from Norway spruce forest residues. Piles of untreated and calcium hydroxide treated wood chips (250 m3) were set up and investigated for four months. It was demonstrated that adding Ca(OH) 2 to moist wood chips decreased the dry matter lo...

Microbiome studies mostly rely on total DNA extracts obtained directly from environmental samples. The total DNA consists of both intra- and extracellular DNA, which differ in terms of their ecological interpretation. In the present study, we have investigated for the first time the differences among the three DNA types using microbiome sequencing...

The high-solid anaerobic digestion (AD) for anaerobic co-digestion of palm oil mill effluent and oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) has low degradation efficiency. The enhancement of biogas production and EFB degradation efficiency by Bacteroides and Clostridium-rich methanogenic consortium was investigated. A Bacteroides and Clostridium-rich metha...

SARS-CoV-2 wastewater epidemiology suffers from uncertainties concerning sample storage. We show the effect of storage of wastewater on the detectable SARS-CoV-2 load. Storage at 4 °C up to 9 days had no significant effect, while storage at −20 °C led to a significant reduction in gene copy numbers. Highlights Raw wastewater samples can be stored...

Biogas from anaerobic digestion (AD) may contribute towards a green energy scene in the future. Despite many benefits, AD plant operators are still challenged by limitations of the technology. This study aimed at evaluating the effect of biochar addition to AD reactors operated at 45°C to optimize productivity, efficiency and stability of the proce...

Canteens represent an essential food supply hub for educational institutions, companies, and business parks. Many people in these locations rely on a guaranteed service with consistent quality. It is an ongoing challenge to satisfy the demand for sufficient serving numbers, portion sizes, and menu variations to cover food intolerances and different...

In recent years, there has been a veritable boost in next-generation sequencing (NGS) of gene amplicons in biological and medical studies. Huge amounts of data are produced and need to be analyzed adequately. Various online and offline analysis tools are available; however, most of them require extensive expertise in computer science or bioinformat...

Most commonly, NGS‐based microbiome studies are performed on the total DNA (totDNA) pool that, however, consists of extracellular‐ (exDNA) and intracellular (iDNA) DNA fractions. By investigating the microbiomes of different anaerobic digesters over time, we found that totDNA suggested lower species richness considering all and/or only common speci...

One of the most challenging aspects of using wood chips as renewable energy source is the loss of biomass related to storage. Therefore, we installed three outdoor industrial-scale piles (250 m 3) of poplar wood chips and monitored the bacterial and fungal communities by next-generation sequencing over a storage period of 120 d. Two of the three pi...

Today, insect applications for food and feed are of strong economic, ecological and social interest. Despite their tremendous potential, insects still elicit negative associations in the mindset of Western consumers, which is attributed to a lack of knowledge and scarce opportunities for engagement in this topic. The citizen science project ‘six-le...

Fertilization of soil is needed to fulfill the growing demand for livestock feed and human food requirements. However, fertilization has short and long-term impacts on the soil microbiota. These, in turn, may influence plant viability and growth. We investigated the soil microbiota of a 27-year field trial, focusing on the influences of mineral nit...

Because of its nutritious properties, the black soldier fly has emerged as one of the most popular species in advancing circular economy through the re-valorization of anthropogenic organic wastes to insect biomass. Black soldier fly frass accumulates as a major by-product in artificial rearing setups and harbors great potential to complement or re...

Fast pyrolysis bio-oil (FPBO) is a liquid biofuel obtained from lignocellulosic residues. Moreover, biomass fly ashes (FAs) containing many minerals and micronutrients are obtained in the production process. Biomass ashes can be used as a lime substitute for amelioration of acid soils by increasing pH, providing nutrients for crop development and s...

Although being a common aim of many microbial ecology studies, measuring individual physiological conditions of a microbial group or species within a complex consortium is still a challenge. Here, we propose a novel approach that is based on the quantification of sequentially extracted extracellular (exDNA) and intracellular DNA (iDNA) and reveals...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

An organism’s gut microbiome handles most of the metabolic processes associated with food intake and digestion but can also strongly affect health and behavior. A stable microbial core community in the gut provides general metabolic competences for substrate degradation and is robust against extrinsic disturbances like changing diets or pathogens....

Deadwood decomposition is relevant in nature and wood inhabiting fungi (WIF) are its main decomposers. However, climate influence on WIF community and their interactions with bacteria are poorly understood. Therefore, we set up an in-field mesocosm experiment in the Italian Alps and monitored the effect of slope exposure (north- vs. south-facing sl...

The dwarf shrub Cressa cretica is a thermocosmopolitan halophilic species. Different mechanisms confer salt stress tolerance such as tissue and osmotic tolerance and ion exclusion, as well as the associated microbiota. The aims were (i) to investigate the best conditions for C. cretica seed germination and to examine the tolerance of germinated see...

The highly heterogeneous structure of oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) restrict the exploitation of its potential in biogas plants. Fungal pretreatment of EFB with Trichoderma reesei TISTR 3080 and Pleurotus ostreatus DSM 11191 to improve EFB biodegradability and methane production via solid-state anaerobic digestion (SS-AD) was investigated. The...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0197896.].