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 , the periodic maintenance and low occurrence of phototrophic biofilms in , and the abundance of phototrophic biofilms in speleothems and walls in . These factors conditioned the diversity of bacteria in the caves and therefore there are large differences among the CFU m, determined using a suction impact collector, equipment widely used in aerobiological studies.