Evaluating environmental contamination in Ria Formosa (Portugal) using stress indexes of Spartina maritima

摘要

species of Spartina are potentially useful for biomonitoring coastal systems because they are abundant in the intertidal and have a wide geographic distribution in temperate zones. In this study, three indexes of physiological stress, tholic protein concentration, adenylic energy charge (AEC) index [AEC=ATP+0.5ADP/(ATP+ADP+AMP)] and photosynthetic effi- ciency (F_v/F_m), are measured in Spartina maritima plants collected at four sites and compared with metal concentrations in the sediments and Spartina tissues.