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

Successive microbes in solar salt ponds are essential since it is well correlated with the quality of salt produced. This research aimed to analyze the microbial diversity of the solar salt ponds in Indonesia, which use high-density polyethylene (HDPE) in the ponds. There are two systems, i.e., 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, i.e., 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, i.e., 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, i.e., the Java Sea and share similar microbial composition at the phylum level, we found the dominance identified microbes in both systems were different.