A multidisciplinary approach to the comparison of three contrasting treatments on both lampenflora community and underlying rock surface

15 páginas.- 6 figuras.- 2 tablas.- 40 referencias

Removing lampenflora, phototrophic organisms developing on rock surfaces in tourist cavities due to the artificial lighting, is a challenge for sustainable and appropriate long-term management of caves. Photosynthetic-based biofilms usually cause rock biodeterioration and an ecological imbalance in cave ecosystems. In this work, a detailed investigation of the effects of the 3 most commonly used lampenflora cleaning operations (NaClO, H2O2 and UVC) was carried out in Pertosa-Auletta Cave (Italy). The application of NaClO showed good disinfection capability over extended periods of time without causing any appreciable rock deterioration. The H2O2 treatment showed to be corrosive for the rock surfaces covered with vermiculation deposits. The chemical alteration of organic and inorganic compounds by H2O2 did not remove biomass, favoring biofilm recovery after three months of treatment. Both NaClO and H2O2 treatments were effective at removing photoautotrophs, although the bacterial phyla Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes as well as Apicomplexa and Cercozoa among the Eukaryotes, were found to be resistant to these treatments. The UVC treatments did not show any noticeable effect on the biofilms.

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCIN) under the research project TUBOLAN PID2019-108672RJ-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033; the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the MICROCENO project (PTDC/CTA-AMB/0608/2020); the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) through the intramural project PIE_20214AT021. A.Z.M. was supported by the CEECIND/01147/2017 contract from FCT, and the Ramón y Cajal contract (RYC2019-026885-I) from MCIN. This work was partly funded by University of Salerno (Italy) within the ORSA197159 and ORSA205530 projects.

Peer reviewed