Airborne bacteria in show caves from Southern Spain

This work presents a study on the airborne bacteria recorded in three Andalusian show caves, subjected to different managements. The main differences within the caves were the absence of lighting and phototrophic biofilms in Cueva de Ardales, the periodic maintenance and low occurrence of phototroph...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Irene Dominguez-Moñino, Valme Jurado, Miguel Angel Rogerio-Candelera, Bernardo Hermosin, Cesareo Saiz-Jimenez
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Shared Science Publishers OG 2021-07-01
Series:Microbial Cell
Subjects:
Online Access:http://microbialcell.com/researcharticles/2021a-dominguez-monino-microbial-cell/
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This work presents a study on the airborne bacteria recorded in three Andalusian show caves, subjected to different managements. The main differences within the caves were the absence of lighting and phototrophic biofilms in Cueva de Ardales, the periodic maintenance and low occurrence of phototrophic biofilms in Gruta de las Maravillas, and the abundance of phototrophic biofilms in speleothems and walls in Cueva del Tesoro. These factors conditioned the diversity of bacteria in the caves and therefore there are large differences among the CFU m-3, determined using a suction impact collector, equipment widely used in aerobiological studies. The study of the bacterial diversity, inside and outside the caves, indicates that the air is mostly populated by bacteria thriving in the subterranean environment. In addition, the diversity seems to be related with the presence of abundant phototrophic biofilms, but not with the number of visitors received by each cave.
ISSN:2311-2638