REUNION ISLAND, WEST INDIAN OCEAN: AN ACTIVE VOLCANO AS AN UNUSUAL SAMPLING SITE FOR MARINE‐ASSOCIATED FUNGI

International audience; Marine ecosystems in active volcanic areas are regularly subject to natural hazardssuch as being covered by incandescent lava flows, acoustic phenomena caused bymicroseisms, temporary changes in physicochemical conditions of water bodiesand exceptional elevations of temperature. The Piton de la Fournaise (ReunionIsland) is one of the most active effusive volcanoes in the world with 27eruptions between 1998 and 2007 and a mean frequency, over a century, of aneruptive phase every 9 months. It provides a natural laboratory to study thecolonization of a blank substrate. Therefore, a project called BIOLAVE waslaunched in 2010 in order to study species and habitat diversity on the coastalmarine area of the volcano, including the first taxonomic inventory for thesoutheast side of the Island [1].One hundred fungal isolates were obtained from 1977 lava flow (-25m depth),2004 lava flow (-70m) and free water (-70m) as preliminary sampling. Density ofpropagules was as follows: 0.085/g free water (-70m), 20/g 2004 lava (–70m) and80/g 1977 lava (-25m) (MEA, PDA and Sabouraud media). These isolates shouldnow be identified using phenotypic characteristics and molecular biology.