Star-forming galaxies in dense environments

We report on preliminary results from an ongoing study of star-forming galaxies in the Virgo Cluster with the aim of understanding the role played by the environment on their evolution. First, the chemical evolution of nine spiral galaxies located in the inner parts of the cluster has been studied using chemical abundances recomputed for a sample of HII regions. Second, long-slit optical spectroscopy has been obtained for 22 blue dwarf galaxies selected across the Virgo central field. This sample is a subset of a larger list of dwarf galaxies for which deep Halpha imaging has been collected. Chemical abundances have been derived for the sample using either a direct estimation of the electron temperature or empirical calibrations. Abundance results correlate with blue and near infrared magnitude, total HI mass and color.