Fungal communities in bunker C oil-impacted sites off southern Guimaras, Philippines: a post-spill assessment of Solar 1 oil spill

Few studies have been conducted to determine how fungal populations respond over the long-term to oil spills in tropical coastal habitats. The present study aimed to provide information on temporal changes in a fungal community affected by an oil spill, and to determine whether there was any recovery of normal mycoflora in the oil-affected sites in Guimaras, the Philippines. Changes in fungal communities are described according to species composition and fungal load (CFUs ml-1 seawater or g-1 soil) by site and sample type. Samples were collected at the same eight sites in 2009, and comprised beach water, beach soil, mangrove surface soil and mangrove sub-surface soil. Fungi were enumerated and isolated using the spread plate serial dilution technique and identified based on colony and microscopic characteristics using available keys and monographs. In general, fungal density appears to have increased over the three-year period and there was a continuing dominance of members of the hyphomycetes, resembling previous data from 2006, though with some shifts in species composition. The observed changes in fungal community composition and density may be signs of initial recovery and re-establishment of a normal fungal flora among the disturbed areas.