Journal of Pollution

Oxidative Stress of Bioaccumulation of Cu, Cr and Ni in Ulva Reticulate in the Red Sea of Jeddah

Abstract

Huda Qari and Ibrahim Hassan

We examined bioaccumulation of Cu, Cr and Ni and their effects on oxidative stress parameters in the green alga Ulva lactuca to determine at a Jeddah City, in order to determine their bioindicators potential.Concentrations of the selected elements (Cu, Ni and Cr) in algal tissues were 16, 24 and 11-fold higher than that in water.Algae collected from seawater had 40% lower total chlorophyll content when compared with controlled algae. On the other hand, lipid peroxidation and H2O2 content were increased in algae collected from seawater by 2-fold each when compared with controlled algae. Antioxidant enzymes showed difference in response, while SOD and POX were increased by 51 and 35%, respectively, CAT showed a decrease by 37% when compared with controlled algae. Our data prove that the toxicity levels of environmentally monitored or exposed heavy metals in algae can be simply and accurately estimated by measuring total Chl content, lipid peroxidation product MDA of samples, and non-enzymatic and enzymatic defense systems.