Keywords: 
• PFOS /
• root elongation /
• phytotoxicity /
• soil

Abstract: PFOS is a new type of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and most of its ecotoxiciy tests were focused on the aquatic system. The research on phytotoxicity of PFOS is still limited. The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of short-term exposure of PFOS on seedling growth of several different plants including wheat, barley, Chinese cabbage, clover and mung bean. The root elongation, shoot elongation and the above ground biomass were selected as different evaluation indices. The dose-response relationship between PFOS concentration and crop growth was established and the correlation was analyzed between different indices, aiming to screen out the plant which was most sensitive to PFOS contamination. Results showed that the lowest EC₅₀ for different endpoints for the selected crops were:wheat 352 mg·kg^-1(root elongation), barley 434 mg·kg^-1(root elongation), clover 794 mg·kg^-1(fresh weight of the above ground biomass), cabbage 829 mg·kg^-1(fresh weight of the above ground biomass), mung bean > 1 000 mg·kg^-1. Thus the decreasing order of phytotoxicity of PFOS for the selected crops were:wheat > barley > clover > cabbage > mung bean. Fibrous root crops (wheat and barley) were more sensitive than straight root crops (clover, cabbage and mung bean). The descending order of sensitivity for four evaluation indices was root elongation > fresh weight of the above ground biomass > shoot elongation > dry weight of the above ground biomass. The root elongation of wheat was the most sensitive indicator. The evaluation indices were positively related based on correlation analysis, indicating PFOS has identical influence on the different evaluation indices for each kind of plant.