Abstract:

Two pilot composting experiments were carried out to investigate some parameters about the variation ofmetabolic enzymes and the degradation of phytotoxicity materials in the aerobic composting of animal waste,such as the composting temperature,the pH value,the germination index,as well as the activities of urease,cellulase,phosphatase and β-glucosidase.The results show that(1)the pH value in the composting is greater than that of raw composting materials,and sharply increases in the thermophilic phase,(2)the activities of urease,phosphatase and β-glucosidase increase rapidly at the initial stage of the composting,then begin to decrease and keep stable at the middle and final stages of the composting,(3)the activity of cellulase maintains a high level in the whole com-posting,and(4)the germination index gradually increases in the composting and finally keeps unchanged at the fi-nal stage of the composting.

Key words: animal waste, aerobic composting, metabolic enzyme, phytotoxicity, degradation