TABLE 1.

Indicator PLFAs of microbial groups in dairy waste compost at a 60-cm depth

Organisms and indicator PLFAb	% of total PLFAs (n = 10) at sampling timea
	Initial	Middle	Final
Eubacteria
15:0	1.28 A	1.12 A	0.65 B
17:0	1.34 A	0.96 B	0.59 C
Fungi
18:2ω6c	3.93 A	4.61 A	3.94 A
18:3ω6c	0.66 A	0.94 A	0.44 A
Aerobic organisms
16:1ω7c	4.78 A	3.83 A	2.03 B
Anaerobic organisms
14:1ω7c DMA	0.03 A	0 A	0 A
16:1ω9c DMA	0.15 A	0 B	0 B
Cyclo 17:0	3.69 A	2.84 B	2.00 C
Cyclo 19:0	4.58 B	6.72 A	7.59 A
Total cyclo compounds	8.28 A	9.56 A	9.59 A
Thermophilic organisms
15:0 iso	4.82 B	7.26 A	7.15 A
17:0 iso	2.32 B	5.43 A	5.15 A
Iso-branched compounds	16.6 B	28.5 A	28.9 A
Total branched compounds	26.3 B	35.8 A	35.0 A
Nonthermophilic organisms
Anteiso	9.57 A	7.29 AB	6.15 B
Unsaturated	22.6 B	29.4 A	30.2 A

^aMeans with the same letter within a row are not significantly different at a P value of 0.05. 

^bThe PLFAs considered markers are per references 2, 3, 5, 9, 14, and 20. DMA, dimethyl acetal.