Comparative diversity analysis of halophiles at two polar saltern systems in Indramayu, West Java, Indonesia

Abstract

Successive microbes in solar salt ponds are essential since it is well correlated with the quality of salt produced. This research aimed to analyse the microbial diversity of the solar salt ponds in Indonesia, which use high‐density polyethylene in the ponds. There are two systems, that is, an integrated open system (In‐system) and a closed system (Tt‐system). The In‐system uses seawater while the Tt‐system uses seawater from the saline artesian well. Results showed that the In‐system had richer microbes than the Tt‐system. Both systems shared similar halophilic microbes profile. Ponds with low salinity (3–4 Be) had very low archaea, that is, 0·2 and 0·7% for the In‐system and Tt‐system respectively and were dominantly inhabited by phylum Proteobacteria. In the pond with high salinity, that is, 25 Be, both systems were dominated by the phylum Euryarchaeota, family Halobacteriaceae, and genera Halorubrum was dominantly found in In25 ponds and Tt25 ponds. Even though the two systems use the same parent seawater, that is, the Java Sea and share similar microbial composition at the phylum level, we found the dominance identified microbes in both systems were different.

Taxonomic Profiling of Microorganisms Inhabiting Two Solar Salterns that Produce High- and Low-Quality Salts

“…It was found that three beneficial genera Halobaculum (596 reads), Haloplanus 903 (reads), and Haloarcula (95 reads) (Koecher et al 2009;Oren 2010Oren , 2014aSo et al 2022) were present in higher abundance in CP-Sampang compared to those in CP-Tuban (Figure 8 and Supplementary Table 6). These 3 archaeal genera were also identified in the Indramayu Indonesia solar saltern (Chasanah et al 2020). Their abundant presence in CP-Sampang can be regarded as good indication of salt quality, since these archaea require high MgCl 2 (Hallsworth et al 2007;Shimoshige et al 2013), thereby lowering Mg 2+ contamination as impurties in the salt produced in the salterns.…”

“…Journal of Biosciences Journal of Biosciences extensively worldwide (Yang et al 2007;Hedi et al 2009;Najjari et al 2015;Naghoni et al 2017;Barreteau et al 2019;Chasanah et al 2020;Mani et al 2020).…”