Effects of heavy metals and high temperature on Atlantic Forest species: Analysis of their tolerance capacity.

Changes in temperature and the deposition of potential pollutants in the soil, such as heavy metals, may damage plant communities, altering their physiological processes. High temperature may also cause a series of morpho-anatomical, physiological and biochemical changes in plants. However, tolerant plant species tend to restrict these harmful effects.

A Practical Procedure for Analysis of Lead Isotopes in Bivalve Shells Using Laser Ablation Multicollector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-MC-ICP-MS).

Lead, like other trace elements, is incorporated in the growing bands of bivalve shells. The chemicals stored into the shells can provide valuable information about seawater conditions during the period of shell formation. In this study, we present a practical approach to determine Pb isotopic signatures in bivalve shells as a tool for evaluating lead pollution in coastal waters.

Fluorescence emission spectra of target chloroplast metabolites (flavonoids, carotenoids, lipofuscins, pheophytins) as biomarkers of air pollutants and seasonal tropical climate.

Chloroplasts have luminescent metabolites-chlorophyll being the most known one-whose fluorescence emission may be a useful tool to assess the physiological status of the plant. Some antioxidants (flavonoids and carotenoids), and byproducts of membrane rupture (lipofuscins) and chlorophyll degradation (pheophytins), are chloroplasts' fluorescent metabolites directly involved in plant response to environmental stressors and pollutants and may act as a biomarker of stress. Here we hypothesized that climatic variations and air pollutants induce alterations in the emission profile of chloroplasts' fluorescent metabolites in Tillandsia usneoides (Bromeliaceae).

Suitability of Tillandsia usneoides and Aechmea fasciata for biomonitoring toxic elements under tropical seasonal climate.

Aechmea fasciata was evaluated for the first time as a biomonitor of toxic elements, in comparison to the biomonitoring capacity of Tillandsia usneoides, a well-established biomonitor bromeliad species. Plants of both species were exposed to air pollutants from industrial, urban, and agricultural sources, under the tropical seasonal climate, from June/2011 to April/2013, in five sites of São Paulo State, Brazil, for 8 consecutive exposure periods of 12 weeks each. The levels of essential and non-essential elements, including trace metals, were quantified at the end of each exposure.