Speleomycology of air and rock surfaces in Driny Cave (Lesser Carpathians, Slovakia)

Abstract

This paper is a speleomycological report from Driny Cave in the Lesser Carpathian Mountains, Slovakia. The samples were collected in July 2014 from one location outside and five locations inside the cave. To examine the air, the Air Ideal 3P sampler was used. Samples from the rock surfaces were collected using sterile swabs wetted in physiological saline (0.85% NaCl). The density of filamentous fungi isolated from the air inside and outside the cave ranged from 89.6 to 1284.7 colony-forming units per 1 m3 of air and from 38.3 to 588.5 CFU per m2 of the rock surface. Six species of filamentous fungi were isolated from the external air samples, and eleven species of filamentous fungi and three species of yeast-like fungi from the internal air samples. Fungi belonging to the Cladosporium genus were the most frequently isolated species from the internal and the external air. Six species of filamentous fungi and two species of yeast-like fungi were isolated from the surface of the rocks inside the cave and only two species from the samples collected outside the cave. Among the fungi isolated from the rock surfaces most frequently were Penicillium chrysogenum, P. granulatum, and Trichoderma harzianum. The concentration of airborne fungi inside the cave did not exceed official limits and norms stated as safe for health of tourists. However, the species found here can cause degradation of rock surfaces.