Abstract: In order to study the degradation of pruned tea leaves by Trichoderma brevicompactum, a pot experiment was designed, which included four treatments: CK (pruned tea leaves and sterilized water), BY (pruned tea leaves and sterilized fermentation broth of T. brevicompactum), FG (pruned tea leaves, T. brevicompactum and sterilized water), and (pruned tea leaves, T. brevicompactum and sterilized fermentation broth). The changes in soil fungi were detected by PCRDGGE. The results showed that the application of T. Brevicompactum not only accelerated the softening speed of pruned tea leaves but also improved the browning degree of pruned tea leaves. After being treated for 60 days, the degradation rate of cellulose in pruned tea leaves increased by 18.16% in FG treatment and 19.02% in BF treatment, compared with CK and BF respectively. An obvious promotion effect on lignin degradation was observed in FG and BF treatments, and the degradation rate of lignin was accelerated during 30-45 days. The degradation rates of lignin in FG and BF treatments were increased by 12.49% and 9.61% after 60 days of incubation, compared with CK and BF respectively. At the early stage, cellulase and lignin enzyme activities were much higher in FG and BF than in Ck and BY, respectively, while they were insignificantly lower than that in CK at the later stage. After 60 days, there were some differences in the quantity of soil fungal communities between the treatment groups, but their community structure was similar. In conclusion, T. brevicompactum can improve the decomposition of pruned tea leaves and has little effect on soil fungal communities.

Key words: carbon carrying capacity, ecological compensation criterion, carbon footprint