Soil quality — Responses of higher plants to environmental stresses — Part 2: Methods to assess the enzyme activities of the antioxidant defense system

This technical specification describes a set of physiological (Part 1) and biochemical (Part 2) parameters allowing to measure sublethal effects in higher plants exposed to soil pollutants. Part 2 is applicable to soils of unknown quality e.g. from contaminated sites, amended soils or soils after remediation either in situ or laboratory exposure assays. For in situ experiments the areas to compare shall be exposed to the same climatic conditions (humidity, temperature, sunlight). This part specifies a toolbox of methods for determining antioxidant defence enzymes activities in leaf homogenates. The method has been developed initially for lettuce but is suitable for monocotyledonous and other dicotyledonous species.