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Seed germination test for toxicity evaluation of compost: Its roles, problems
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Article in Waste Management · October 2017

DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2017.09.023

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Waste Management
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wasman

Seed germination test for toxicity evaluation of compost: Its roles,

problems and prospects
Yuan Luo a,b, Jie Liang a,b,⇑, Guangming Zeng a,b,⇑, Ming Chen a,b, Dan Mo a,b, Guoxue Li c,d, Difang Zhang c,d
a
College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
b
Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha 410082, China
c
College of Resource and Environmental Science, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
d
Beijing Key Laboratory of Farmland Pollution Prevention-control and Remediation, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Compost is commonly used for the growth of plants and the remediation of environmental pollution. It is
Received 6 April 2017 important to evaluate the quality of compost and seed germination test is a powerful tool to examine the
Revised 18 September 2017 toxicity of compost, which is the most important aspect of the quality. Now the test is widely adopted,
Accepted 19 September 2017
but the main problem is that the test results vary with different methods and seed species, which limits
Available online xxxx
the development and application of it. The standardization of methods and the modelization of seeds can
contribute to solving the problem. Additionally, according to the probabilistic theory of seed germination,
Keywords:
the error caused by the analysis and judgment methods of the test results can be reduced. Here, we
Compost
Toxicity
reviewed the roles, problems and prospects of the seed germination test in the studies of compost.
Germination Ó 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Model seed

Contents

1. The roles of the seed germination test for the toxicity evaluation of compost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
2. Could there be a widely accepted procedure of the seed germination test? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
3. Is it necessary to improve analysis and judgment methods of the results of the seed germination test? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
4. Could there be a species of plant seed to be used as a model seed for the toxicity evaluation of compost? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
5. Conclusions and prospects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00

1. The roles of the seed germination test for the toxicity agro-industrial residues (Aviani et al., 2010), municipal organic
evaluation of compost solid wastes (Kelessidis and Stasinakis (2012); Anand and Apul,
2014), etc. Compost is often used as the growth media (Boldrin
Composting, an effective and economical biotechnology, is et al., 2010), the organic fertilizer (Feng et al., 2016), the soil
widely used in the sanitization and recycling of biowastes includ- amendment (D Hose et al., 2014; Alvarenga et al., 2015) and the
ing animal manures (Ge et al., 2016; Liang et al., 2017a) and car- suppressive substance of soil-borne plant diseases (Mehta et al.,
casses (Gwyther et al., 2011), crop straws (Zhang et al., 2016), 2014; Yu et al., 2015) for agricultural production and landscaping.
In recent years composting has been studied for the bioremedia-
⇑ Corresponding authors at: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, tion of soils contaminated with heavy metal(loid)s (Park et al.,
Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China. 2011; Wu et al., 2016; Liang et al., 2017 b) and organic
E-mail addresses: liangjie@hnu.edu.cn, liangjie82@163.com (J. Liang),
zgming@hnu.edu.cn (G. Zeng).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2017.09.023
0956-053X/Ó 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Please cite this article in press as: Luo, Y., et al. Seed germination test for toxicity evaluation of compost: Its roles, problems and prospects. Waste Manage-
ment (2017), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2017.09.023
2 Y. Luo et al. / Waste Management xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

contaminants (Chen et al., 2015; Huang et al., 2016; Kastner and Number of germinated seedsðsampleÞ
RSG ¼  100% ð2Þ
Miltner, 2016). Number of germinated seedsðcontrolÞ
Compost quality, such as stability and maturity, should be
checked before the application of compost on land. The unstable Total radicle length of germinated seedsðsampleÞ
and/or immature compost can have adverse effects on seed germi- RRG ¼  100%
Total radicle length of germinated seedsðcontrolÞ
nation, plant growth and soil environment due to the decreased
ð3Þ
supply of oxygen and/or available nitrogen or the presence of phy-
totoxic compounds (Bernal et al., 2009). Stability is the resistance
GI ¼ RSG  RRG  100% ð4Þ
of the organic matter in compost against further microbial decom-
position as long as there is no inhibition on the microbes by other
GI50% þ GI75%
factors not relevant to the organic matter, while maturity is an GI ¼  100% ð5Þ
agronomic parameter that is clearly associated to the effect of com- 2
post on plant growth (Komilis, 2015). The indices of respiration
GI25% þ GI50% þ GI75%
and humification of compost are used to evaluate the stability GI ¼  100% ð6Þ
3
and maturity of compost (Komilis and Kanellos, 2012; Hill et al.
(2013); Nikaeen et al., 2015), respectively. The substances, includ- where GI25%, GI50% and GI75% were GI values of the samples that were
ing low molecular weight organic acids (e.g. phenolic acids 25%, 50% and 75% of the raw aqueous extract of compost diluted
(Marambe et al., 1992)), ammonium nitrogen (NH+4-N) (Ramírez with deionized or distilled water (v/v), respectively.
et al., 2008), salinity (Hase and Kawamura, 2012), heavy metals At present, the major problem in the studies of the seed germi-
(Fuentes et al., 2004), xenobiotics (e.g. antibiotics (Liu et al., nation test is that there is no universally adopted procedure, which
2009) and agrochemicals (Cayuela et al., 2008; Tang et al., is reflected at the incompleteness of the test procedure and the dif-
2008)), can cause damage to plants when they are in high levels. ferences of the corresponding methods (Table 1). In the first step, it
In general, many of these substances need to be gauged via time- is essential to determine the extraction ratio because the toxicity of
consuming and expensive detection processes to determine compost extract is related to its concentration (Emino and
whether their levels are beyond or within acceptable ranges. How- Warman, 2004; Said-pullicino et al., 2007; Young et al., 2016).
ever, there exists the possibility for the unexpected factors that are Although the extraction ratio of 1:10 (w/v) is one of the most used
not taken for analysis. Furthermore, there is a lack of analytical ratios in studies (Table 1), the test samples are fresh samples and
procedure to evaluate the joint effect of the toxic substances in have different moisture content. Owing to the large change in
compost. Consequently, as a bioassay, seed germination test has the moisture content of the raw material during composting, the
attracted a lot of attention to overcome these concerns. The seed moisture content of the samples collected from different compost-
germination index (GI) was firstly proposed by Zucconi et al. ing stages is different (Chikae et al., 2006). In order to accurately
(1981) who used cress seeds in the germination test for evaluating evaluate the change of the toxicity of samples during composting
the toxicity of compost. GI is calculated by the radicle length and and increase the comparability of the toxicity of samples with dif-
germination percentage of the seeds in the sample (compost ferent moisture content, it is necessary to eliminate the interfer-
extract) compared to that in the control (e.g. deionized water). GI ence of moisture content on test results. So far, there are two
is correlated with some other biological and chemical indices for methods to address this problem. One method (Chikae et al.,
evaluating compost quality. The study of El Fels et al. (2016) 2006; Khan et al., 2014) is to prepare the extract according to a cer-
showed that GI was positively correlated with the biological index tain extraction ratio of water and dry weight of fresh sample, but
of the Artemia salina cytotoxicity test for evaluating the toxicity of how to select a suitable value of the extraction ratio remains unset-
compost. In addition, GI is positively correlated with humification tled. Another method (Pampuro et al., 2010) is to adjust the mois-
parameters (Gavilanes-Terán et al., 2016) while negatively corre- ture content of fresh sample to 85% to prepare the extract or its
lated with the content of NH+4 (Tiquia et al., 1996; Guo et al., dilutions for the seed germination test (Said-pullicino et al.,
2012). Therefore, the seed germination test has been broadly 2007; Cesaro et al., 2015). Centrifugation and membrane filtration
accepted for evaluating compost quality. In Italy, GI is listed in can quickly and effectively remove the particulates in the extract.
the quality assessment regulation of compost for commercializa- They are essential steps to reduce the interference of particulates
tion (Cesaro et al., 2015). However, there are large variations in on test results. In the second step, the major differences are
the aspects of method and seed species of the test among previous reflected at the species of seed and the definition of seed germina-
studies (see Section 2). The problems and prospects of studies in tion (Table 1). There is no recognized seed species that can be used
the seed germination test will be comprehensively reviewed in to evaluate the toxicity of compost and the seed is often obtained
the following parts. locally. The definition of seed germination can be divided into
three groups by radicle length: only visible, at least 2 mm and at
2. Could there be a widely accepted procedure of the seed least 5 mm. It is not difficult to observe, even the incubation time
germination test? is prolonged, the initial radicles of the germinated seeds inhibited
in test are no longer to elongate, so a certain length that the radicle
The seed germination test procedure consists of three major reached is used as the operational definition of germination. In fact,
steps. Firstly, prepare an aqueous extract of compost; secondly, the process of germination is completed by visible radicle protru-
incubate seeds with the extract; thirdly, measure and calculate sion through the testa (seed coat), and radicle elongation belongs
the indicators related to the test results by Eqs. (1–6), including to post-germination (Weitbrecht et al., 2011). Moreover, if the
the seed germination (SG), the relative seed germination (RSG), incubation time is too long, the secondary root will begin to grow
the relative radicle growth (RRG) and the seed germination index and the cotyledon will have strong phototaxis, and the length of
(GI). More details of the typical test procedures in studies are sum- radicle cannot exactly reflect the toxicity. The incubation time
marized in Table 1. depends on specific environmental conditions and seed species.
After the incubation time is over, seeds can be frozen at -10 °C
Number of germinated seeds
SG ¼  100% ð1Þ for 24 h or added with ethanol equivalent to the sample (aqueous
Number of total seeds extract) to end their growth (Macias et al., 2000; Gómez-Brandón
et al., 2008). These methods are effective in the handling of seeds,

Please cite this article in press as: Luo, Y., et al. Seed germination test for toxicity evaluation of compost: Its roles, problems and prospects. Waste Manage-
ment (2017), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2017.09.023
 Table 1
ment (2017), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2017.09.023
Please cite this article in press as: Luo, Y., et al. Seed germination test for toxicity evaluation of compost: Its roles, problems and prospects. Waste Manage-

The essential steps of the seed germination test for evaluating the toxicity of compost.

Primary feedstocks of Aqueous extract Seed germination References

compost
Sample to water ratio (w/v) Shake Centrifugation Filtration Species of seedd Number Volume Incubation Operational
of seeds of extract time (d) definition of
per Petri (mL) per germination
dish Petri dish
Municipal solid waste, Dilutions (25%, 50% and 75% in Without shaking, 10 000 rpm 0.45 lm Lepidium sativum L. 10 1 2 -e Said-pullicino et al. (2007)
yard trimmings, deionized water) of the aqueous standing and for 10 min membrane
foliage residues extract of the fresh sample with contacting 2 h filter
85% moisture content (wet weight)
Municipal solid waste Dilution (30% in deionized water) Without shaking, 6000 rpm for Sterilizing Lepidium. sativum, 10 3 3  0.5 mm Cesaro et al. (2015)
of the aqueous extract of the fresh standing and 15 min membrane Sorghum.
sample with 85% moisture content contacting 2 h saccharatum,
(wet weight) Cucumis. sativus
Green waste 1:5a With shaking for – Qualitative Pakchoi (Brassica 20 1 2 – Zhang et al. (2013)
24 h filter paper rapa L.,
Chinensisgroup)
Vegetable residues 1:10a 200 rpm for 6000 rpm for 0.45 lm Radish 10 10 2 – Huang et al. (2016)
40 min 15 min millipore

Y. Luo et al. / Waste Management xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

filter paper
Food waste 1:10b With shaking for – Filtrated Komatsuna 30 10 2 – Chikae et al. (2006)
30 min (Campestris
brassica)
Food waste Fresh sample – – – Cress 20 – 5 A visible Aslam et al. (2008)
(‘Peppergrass’) radicle
Kitchen waste Sample submerged by water – – – Cress (Lepidium 10 10 2 – Zeng et al. (2007)
sativum)
Kitchen waste 1:10a 150 rpm for 4000 rpm for 0.45 lm Pakchoi 20 10 3 – Yang et al. (2013)
30 min 20 min membrane
filter
Pig manure 1:10a 10 min – Qualitative Chinese cabbage, 10–30 10 5  5 mm Tiquia et al. (1996)
filter paper Chinese kale, (radicle
Chinese spinach, length)
cucumber, onion,
tomato
Pig manure 85% moisture content (wet weight) 2h 6000 rpm for Filtrated Lepidium sativum 10 1 1–3 A visible Pampuro et al. (2010)
15 min L., Raphanus sativus radicle
L., Sinapis alba L.
Pig manure 1:10a 150 rpm for 1 h 4000 rpm for 0.45 lm Cucumber 10 8 2 – Guo et al. (2012)
20 min membrane
filter
Pig manure 1:10a 150 rpm for 1 h 4000 rpm for 0.45 lm Radish 20 10 2 – Zang et al. (2016)
20 min membrane
filter
Dairy manure, beef 1:2c 1h 3000 rpm for Filtrated Radish (Raphanus 30 10 3  5 mm Ko et al. (2008)
manure, pig manure 20 min sativs L.) (radicle
length)
Chicken litter 1:10b 200 rpm for 3 h 3000  g for 0.45 lm Cress (Lepidium 8 1 3 – Khan et al. (2014)
20 min syringe sativa)
filter
a
With fresh samples.
b
With fresh samples by dry weight basis.
c
With dry samples.
d
The seed germination temperature was between 20 °C and 25 °C, which was suitable for seed germination, so the temperature was not listed.
e
The step was absent.

3
4 Y. Luo et al. / Waste Management xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

especially in measuring the radicle length of germinated seeds principle of the small probability event (a = 0.05), the case that
accurately. The third step is mainly about the calculation of GI the number of germinated seeds is less than seven in ten seeds
(see Eqs. (2–4) for more details). The GI value, not less than 80%, does not occur in one test (P < 0.05). If it does in the Petri dish of
usually means that compost has no phytotoxicity (Tiquia et al., the sample, which means that the seed germination is inhibited;
1996). However, the toxicity of compost is also affected by the if it does in the Petri dish of the control, which means that the seed
extraction ratio. One way to eliminate the effect of the extraction selected is undesirable for the test. Usually, plump and shiny seeds
ratio is preparing high concentration of compost extract and using are sieved to ensure the germination under suitable conditions, but
its dilution with water (v/v) for the test, so the actual toxicity of it there may be some special ones, such as the deep dormant seeds
could be reflected by GI. Said-pullicino et al. (2007) enhanced the (Derek Bewley, 1997), which still cannot germinate. Therefore,
moisture content of the fresh compost samples to 85% (wet the principle of probability and statistics to judge the number of
weight) with deionized water and made aqueous extracts by con- germinated seeds in test can reduce the error caused by the special
taction, centrifugation and filtration (see Table 1 for more details). seeds.
The results showed that the values of GI increased from 12.8% (day There are currently three viewpoints on analysis and judgment
0) to 74.7% (day 250). However, the electrical conductivity values of the results of the seed germination test. First, GI is widely
of the composting mixture samples were from 5.0 to 7.8 mS cm1, adopted because it combines RSG with RRG, both of which can
which implied that the concentrations of soluble salts were in the reflect the toxicity of compost (Zucconi et al. (1981); Emino and
level considered being inhibitory for seed germination (Hoekstra Warman, 2004). Second, RRG is more sensitive indicator than RSG
et al., 2002). In addition, as seen from Eqs. (4–6), the accuracy of to the toxicity (Tiquia et al., 1996; Fuentes et al., 2004), so RRG is
GI to evaluate the toxicity of compost could be improved by used alone. Third, the toxic level of the compost that inhibits seed
increasing the weight of GI values of different dilutions. Mitelut germination is higher than that inhibits radicle elongation, thus
and Popa (2011) prepared compost extract with the fresh sample RSG and RRG are used to evaluate the toxicity separately. In other
and distilled water at the ratio of 1:2 (w/v), then it was diluted words, if compost inhibits seed germination, it is not necessary
with distilled water to yield 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of the ini- to evaluate the effect of it on radicle elongation; if not, the effect
tial extract (v/v). The global germination index (Eq. (5)), i.e. the on the radicle needs to be evaluated. Luo et al. (2016) used the
average of GI values of the 50% and 75% of the extracts, was indices of SG (Eq. (1)), RRG and GI to determine the profile of the
adopted in their study. The results showed that the index values toxicity of pig manure during composting. The results showed that
of the samples were below 80% and the germination percentages the RRG values of two species of seeds (radish and cabbage) were
of the extracts (beyond 25% of the initial extract) were almost zero, significantly and positively correlated, and the SG values of all
which proved to be a high phytotoxicity of the samples. Further- seeds were more than 70% (seven germinated seeds of ten seeds
more, the study revealed that the samples significantly inhibited per Petri dish), which indicated that compost had no effect on ger-
seed germination (radicle emergence), and let alone radicle elonga- mination of the seeds. The third viewpoint on the test is worth
tion. Similarly, according to the test procedure listed in Table 1 and studying in compost derived from other biowastes.
Eq. (6), the results of Qian et al. (2014) showed that the GI values Moreover, time courses of seed germination are usually several
varied from 68% (day 30) to 129% (day 90) in swine manure com- days under suitable conditions, which can be morphologically
posting and from 88% (day 30) to 119% (day 90) in dairy manure divided into three phases (Fig. 1) that consist of phase I (imbibi-
composting. In addition, the GI values of commercial compost of tion), phase II (radicle emergence) and phase III (radicle elonga-
swine manure and dairy manure reached 145% and 126%, respec- tion). The uptake of water is the major process of seed
tively. Recently, Young et al. (2016) made the extract concentra- germination during the phase I, which could be negatively affected
tions used in the test range from 0.5% to 100% (i.e. 0.5%, 1%, 5%, by high salinity of compost. During the phase II, the low molecular
10%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100%, v/v) of the raw extract that weight organic acids of compost could be the primary inhibitor of
was prepared by mixing a dry sample with deionized water radicle emergence after testa rupture. Radicle elongation could be
(1:10, dw/v). They proposed that the two concentrations of com- inhibited by NH+4 during the phase III. This speculation partly sup-
post extract (RRG=80% and GI=80%) were both over 100%, which ports a viewpoint that seed germination can be used to examine
indicated non-inhibitory effect of compost. This is a new idea to the compost with high toxicity and radicle growth can be used to
study the phytotoxicity of compost from the perspective of dose- examine the compost with low toxicity (Zucconi et al. (1981);
effect relationships, and it has important guiding significance for Tiquia et al., 1996). Further studies are needed to validate the effec-
the comparison between samples with different toxicity degrees. tiveness and applicability of this conception in the seed germina-
tion test.

Table 2
3. Is it necessary to improve analysis and judgment methods of Binomial probability distribution of the number of germinated seeds with ten seeds
the results of the seed germination test? per Petri dish.a

Number of germinated seeds Binomial formula Probability (P)

Seed germination is a random event. With the increase in the
10 C10 0 0.3487
10 p ð1  pÞ
10
number of test seeds, the occurrence frequency of germinated
seeds will gradually approach a stable value, i.e. the probability 9 C910 p9 ð1  pÞ1 0.3874

(P) that represents the viability of the whole selected seeds. Gener- 8 C810 p8 ð1  pÞ2 0.1937

ally, the germination frequency or percentage of one thousand 7 C710 p7 ð1  pÞ3 0.0574

seeds is adopted as P. Assuming a commercial seed lot with the 6 C610 p6 ð1  pÞ4 0.0112

germination percentage of 90% is used to carry out the test with 5 C510 p5 ð1  pÞ5 0.0015
4 C410 p4 ð1  pÞ6 0.0001
ten seeds per Petri dish. It is well known that the probability of
3 C310 p3 ð1  pÞ7 8.75  10-6
the number of the germinated seeds are subject to binomial distri-
2 C210 p2 ð1  pÞ 8 3.64  10-7
bution (Boyle, 2003). Thus, solving for the binomial distribution of
1 C110 p1 ð1  pÞ9 9.00  10-9
ten seeds per Petri dish (see Table 2 for more details), results indi-
0 C010 p0 ð1  pÞ 10 1.00  10-10
cate that nearly 99% of Petri dishes would contain seven to ten ger-
minated seeds, and there is low probability (<0.0001) of the a
Assuming an infinitely large population of seeds where 90% are capable of
germinated seeds less than five in a Petri dish. According to the germinating (p = 0.9).

Please cite this article in press as: Luo, Y., et al. Seed germination test for toxicity evaluation of compost: Its roles, problems and prospects. Waste Manage-
ment (2017), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2017.09.023
 Y. Luo et al. / Waste Management xxx (2017) xxx–xxx 5

Fig. 1. Morphological key processes during the seed germination and seedling growth of Chinese cabbage, a non-endospermic eudicot. The yellow and white fonts represent
the stage where light is and is not required, respectively. The dotted line indicates the top of the dish for placing seeds. The diagram is based on the theories of Derek Bewley
(1997) and Weitbrecht et al. (2011) and the study of Luo et al. (2016).

4. Could there be a species of plant seed to be used as a model tivity to environmental pollution and the short-period course
seed for the toxicity evaluation of compost? without photosynthesis. The seed germination test is an effective
and economical bioassay to evaluate the potential toxicity of com-
The result of the seed germination test is a seed species- post before it can be used. Further studies of the determination of
dependent parameter, and cress seed is the most adopted species the extraction ratio (e.g. sample to water, dw/v), the application of
in previous studies (Said-pullicino et al., 2007; Zeng et al., 2007; the probabilistic theory (e.g. binomial probability), the correlation
Aslam et al., 2008; Pampuro et al., 2010; Khan et al., 2014). How- between affecting factors (e.g. salinity, low molecular weight
ever, the range of application of cress seed is proved to be limited, organic acids and NH+4) and different stages of seed germination
and there has been a few works to determine whether there exists process (imbibition, radicle emergence and radicle elongation),
a species of plant seed that is more sensitive than cress seed to the and the selection of model seeds (e.g. Chinese cabbage) in the seed
toxicity of compost. Emino and Warman (2004) compared the GI germination test of the compost made from different kinds of feed-
values of mature and immature municipal solid waste compost stocks are still required. Moreover, future investigations are
with three groups of the seeds that included the large size (green needed to evaluate and correlate the different procedures of the
bean, sweet corn, hybrid cucumber and sunflower), the medium seed germination test. Overall, the standardization and improve-
size (broccoli, Chinese cabbage, radish, tomato, amaranthus and ment of the test procedure and the modelization of the test seeds
shasta daisy) and the small size (cress, carrot, lettuce and petunia) are beneficial to enhancing the validity and reproducibility of the
seeds. They concluded that most of the species, including cress seed germination test for evaluating the toxicity of compost.
seed, were not sensitive enough to discriminate between the
mature and the immature compost, while Chinese cabbage seed
was the most sensitive one of these seeds to that. Most impor- Acknowledgements
tantly, they firstly proposed a criterion that the model seed would
germinate and grow well in mature compost, whereas the seed This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foun-
would germinate less and grow slowly in immature compost. Ear- dation of China [51479072, 51679082, 51521006, 51579094,
lier studies of Chinese cabbage seed in pig manure composting 51579098, 51508177] and the New Century Excellent Researcher
(Tiquia et al., 1996) and three types of mature compost Award Program [NCET-08-0181] from the Ministry of Education
(Warman, 1999) indicated that Chinese cabbage seed was sensitive of China.
to the low level of the toxicity of compost, which confirmed the
conclusion that Chinese cabbage seed met the criterion. Recently,
References
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