Reactor performance and microbial community dynamics during solid-state anaerobic digestion of corn stover at mesophilic and thermophilic conditions

► Microbial community in solid state anaerobic digestion (SS-AD) of corn stover. ► Thermophilic SS-AD led to faster reductions of cellulose and hemicelluloses. ► Thermophilic SS-AD also led to higher accumulation of VFAs. ► Reactor performance correlated well with populations of microbes. ► Bacterial and archaeal communities underwent considerable successions in SS-AD.