Cadmium (Cd) & copper (Cu) toxicity on growth of Nannochloris sp

Nowadays, the decrease of water quality due to pollution continue to occur. Cadmium and copper are heavy metals that increasingly accumulate in the oceans as a result of industrial development. As a primary producer, phytoplankton becomes the first object which get a direct impact from the metal contamination. Nannochloris sp. is a phytoplankton that has a high content of protein and unsaturated fatty acids. This research aims to study the toxicity of Cd & Cu on the growth of Nannochloris sp. The test was conducted from February to March 2018 at the Laboratory of Marine Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Oceanography LIPI. The test was divided to 3 stages, observation of phytoplankton’s growth curve, Range Finder Test, and Definitive Test. On the Definitive Test, Nannochloris sp. incubated for 96 hours in Cd and Cu exposure. From this research, it could be concluded that the concentration of Cd & Cu positively correlated to growth inhibition of Nannochloris sp. and Cu was more toxic than Cd. IC50-96 hours of Cd for the growth of Nannochloris sp. is 0.59 mg/L and 0.42 g/L for Cu. The value of NOEC was 0.56 mg/L for Cd and < 0.1 mg/L for Cu. While the value of LOEC was 1 mg/L for Cd and 0.1 mg/L for Cu.