Abstract:To reveal the influence of different ventilation modes on nitrogen conversion and loss during the aerobic composting process, the experiment with cattle manure and corn stalk was conducted in the reactor under two different treatments of ventilation modes (continuous ventilation T1 and intermittent ventilation T2). The results showed that the losses of total nitrogen in T1 and T2 accounted for 23.25% and 21.12% of the initial total nitrogen, respectively. Total nitrogen loss was dominated by NH3 volatilization. The nitrogen loss of T1 and T2 treatment from NH3 volatilization accounted for 74.76% and 61.84% and from N2O emission accounted for 1.12% and 1.37% of the total nitrogen loss. NH3 volatilization mainly occurred in the early stage of composting. The cumulative NH3 emissions of T2 treatment was 24.37% less than that in T1 treatment. Different ventilation modes also had significant influences on the content of NH+4N and NO-3N during composting. At the end of composting, compared with T1 treatment, the content of NH+4N in T2 treatment was 11% lower, while the content of NO-3N in T2 treatment was 6.7% higher and the content of total acid-hydrolyzed organic nitrogen was 12.4% higher than that in T1 treatment. T2 treatment could promote the nitration reaction and ammonia assimilation. Structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that the total effects of different types of organic nitrogen on the content of NH+4N during composting was decreased as follows: amine nitrogen (1.006), amino sugar nitrogen (0.485), hydrolyzable unknown nitrogen (0.034), and amino acid nitrogen (-0.852). Amino sugar nitrogen, hydrolyzable unknown nitrogen and amine nitrogen were most easily converted into NH+4N, while amino acid nitrogen was synthesized from NH+4N during composting. T2 treatment could facilitate the transformations from NH+4N to amino acid nitrogen. Intermittent ventilation could stimulate the growth and activity of microorganisms, and so increasing the accumulation of amino sugar nitrogen. Intermittent ventilation should inhibit the conversion of organic nitrogen to NH+4N, thus reducing the nitrogen loss caused by NH3 emission in the composting process.