Isolation of Bacteria and Analysis of Microplastic Abundance from Bagansiapiapi Waters in Riau Province, Indonesia

Abstract

Microplastic contamination in the marine environment has disturbed organisms such as plankton, benthos, nekton and fish. Plastic waste also has potency to cause economic losses in fishing, tourism and shipping industries. This study aims to isolate and identify bacteria and to analyse microplastic in Bagansiapiapi waters by a survey method. Sampling was carried out at three locations in the range of geographical coordinates of 2.110717° - 2.131641° Latitude, and 100.745152° - 100.795530° Longitude. The water samples were collected from the surface water, subsurface water (1-2 m depth), and surface sediment. Range of bacterial counts in the surface, sub-surface waters and sediment were 11.4 × 104 – 31.8 × 104 cfu/ml; 0.2 × 104 – 13.6 × 104 cfu/ml and 17.9 × 104 – 33.1 × 104 cfu/mg, respectively. There were 37 bacterial isolates identified based on morphological, physical and biochemical characters. The ranges of microplastic abundance in surface and subsurface waters and in sediment were 73.333 ± 30.551 – 83.333 ± 15.275 particles/L, 50.000 ± 20.000 – 76.667 ± 20.817 particles/L and 50.000 ± 26.458 - 70.000 ± 17.321 particles/Kg, respectively. The types of microplastic found were fiber, filament, pellet and film.