Lurence John S. Arguez, Donez Dee L. Acuesta, John Rommel A. Manuel (March 2009)
Philippine Science High School Western Visayas Campus – Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PSHS WVC), Brgy. Bito-on, Jaro, Iloilo City 5000, Philippines
ABSTRACT
The study was conducted using an experimental design to determine the ability of the two bacterial species namely, Pseudomonas putida and Pseudomonas fluorescens to reduce the initial concentration of lead in the broth medium at 6.54 ppm ± 0.5 ppm in each of the two bacterial culture set-ups. The independent variable is the presence of bacteria in the broth medium with lead and the response variable is the concentration of lead in the broth medium after three periods of exposure. The statistical procedure included the paired T-test at 5% confidence level.
Results showed that the inoculation of the two bacteria in the broth medium with lead has significantly decreased the concentrations of lead in the culture and thus greatly proved that the two bacteria has the potential to be used in bioremediation and biosorption of lead in the environment.
In conclusion, the bacteria that has the highest reduction of concentration of lead in the broth medium is Pseudomonas fluorescens that reduced lead concentration from 6.54 ppm to 1.16 ppm after twelve hours of exposure to the metal, compared to Pseudomonas putida that has only reduced the concentration of lead from 6.3 ppm to 1.4 ppm.