ABSTRACT
Previous studies on the fungal community in the Nerja Cave (Malaga, Andalusia) were focused only on a capture of fungal spores from the cave atmosphere and outdoor air by the Hirst-type volumetric pollen traps, which means without cultivation methods. The results of these studies showed the presence of different spore types belonging to Oomycota, Myxomycota, but mainly to Ascomycota and Basidiomycota including their anamorph states, where spores of Penicillium/Aspergillus were dominant. Our study was targeted on cultivable microscopic fungi. Several sites inside the cave, mainly in the Tourist Gallery (2011 and 2012) but also in the Upper Gallery (2012) were chosen and several soil samples were collected above the cave, the isolation from outside air was also used to compare with cave environment. Two isolation methods were used for this study—the gravity settling technique for the isolation of airborne microfungi inside and outside the cave and the dilution plate method for the isolation of microfungi from cave sediment and soil above the cave. The CFU counts of airborne cultivable microfungi were found to be much lower in comparison with previous published data from volumetric traps. Nevertheless a rich microfungal spectrum was isolated from the cave air as well as from the cave sediments. To date, 16 and 6 species of the genus Aspergillus have been identified from cave sediments and cave air, respectively, including one novel species.
