First Report on a 5-Year Monitoring of Lampenflora in a Famous Show Cave in Serbia

ABSTRACT: Many show caves are vulnerable to various disturbances, meaning that conservation of such habitats, which would include monitoring of their ecological parameters and lampenflora (a growing problem worldwide), should be a priority. For the first time in Serbia, lampenflora was monitored continously for 5 years (2016–2020), three times per year during the tourist season, in the Lazar Cave. Artificial light created favorable conditions for the proliferation of phototrophic microorganisms that were developed not only as epiliths, but also endoliths, which poses a greater danger for cave substratum and structures. Although a higher diversity in general was found in Cyanobacteria (coccoid forms mostly), Chlorophyta were more widespread and abundant in samples, among which Chlorella, Stichococcus

SUBMITTER: Popovic S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9791150 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature