Keywords: 
• Hg⁰ /
• Aegiceras corniculatum /
• physiological characteristics /
• resistance

Abstract: As one of the main widespread mangrove plants in China, Aegiceras corniculatum can tolerate salt by excreting salt. Mangroves are facing more and more serious heavy metal pollution, especially the mercury contamination. To investigate the mechanism of mercury absorption and tolerance of mangrove, stress experiments were conducted with Aegiceras corniculatum seedlings under Hg⁰ stress. In this experiment, physiological characteristics such as the contents of chlorophyll, soluble sugars, malondialdehyde (MDA), proline (Pro), and reduced glutathione (GSH), activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT) of Aegiceras corniculatum seedlings' leaves were measured. Results showed as follows:the content of soluble sugars and the activity of POD gradually decreased under Hg⁰ stress; while MDA content,Pro content and SOD activity significantly increased; the chlorophyll content and CAT activity increased firstly and then decreased, and on the contrary, the content of GSH decreased initially and then increased. The findings from above study demonstrate that although Hg⁰ tress can lead to damage of metabolism by causing membrane lipid peroxidation in seedlings' leaves, but the seedlings could change activities of the antioxidative enzymes and the content of GSH to enhance the antioxidant abilities, and then strengthen organism resistance to mercury.