Bioremediation Performance of Marine Sponge Symbiont Bacteria against Nickel and Mercury Heavy Metal Pollutants

Heavy metals, mercury, and nickel are toxic contaminants, forming positive ions when concentrated and dissolved, and can accumulate in a specific object, including water. The activity and performance of bacterial bioremediation against toxic heavy metals vary due to bacterial characteristics and internal contaminant factors. This research aims to analyze the activity, performance, and efficiency of bioremediation of nickel and mercury pollutants using marine sponge symbiont bacteria. The bioremediation analysis procedure, suspension of bacteria Alcaligenes faecalis strain Cu4-1 (AF), and Acinetobacter calcoaceticus strain PHCDB14 (AC) interacted with heavy metal pollutants as contaminants for 15 days. Bioremediation performance and efficiency were measured using AAS. The analysis parameters consisted of the performance, efficiency, and mechanism of bacterial bioremediation against nickel and mercury pollutants. The research results show that the bioremediation performance of AF and AC bacteria can carry out the bioremediation function against Ni+2 and Hg+2 contaminants. The bioremediation performance of AF bacteria against Ni+2 pollutant is, on average 167.64±0.9 mg/L, equivalent to 66.85% bioremediation efficiency, and against Hg+2 an average 171.55±0.7 equivalent to the efficiency of 65.47%. The performance of bioremediation of AC bacteria on Ni+2 pollutant was 168.92±0.7 or efficiency reached 66.97%, and 145.87±0.8 for Hg+2, equivalent to 58.35% efficiency. The bioremediation performance of AF ˂ AC bacteria against Ni+2 pollutants, but against Hg+2 pollutants, the bioremediation performance of AF ˃ AC bacteria. The symbiotic bacteria of marine sponges are thought to have bioremediation performance against toxic metal pollutants are bacteria isolated from sponges whose body surface is covered with mucus substances.