Biomonitoring heavy metal contaminations by moss visible parameters.

•Moss anthocyanin, chlorosis pattern and chlorophyll fluorescence images can roughly reflect metal species groups and concentrations in aquatic media.•Enzymatic and non-enzymatic anti-oxidative abilities and photosynthetic protein contents of E. eustegium are higher than those of T. taxirameum.•The study provides new ideas to monitor water heavy metals rapidly and non-invasively in a large-scale.