Abstract
Bat caves are very special roosts that harbour thousands of bats of one or more species. Such sites may hold an incredible “dark fungal diversity” which is still underestimated. We explored the culturable fungal richness in the air, on bats, and in the guano in a bat cave in Brazil’s Caatinga dry forest. Fungal abundance was 683 colony-forming units (CFU) in the guano, 673 CFU in the air, and 105 CFU on the bats. Based on morphological and phylogenetic analysis of ITS, LSU, and TUB2 sequences, fungal isolates of 59 taxa belonging to 37 genera in the phyla Ascomycota (28 genera, including Aspergillus, Penicillium, Cladosporium, and Talaromyces), Basidiomycota (eight genera, including Rhodotorula and Schizophyllum), and Mucoromycota (only Rhizopus) were identified. The fungal richness in the air was 23 taxa (especially Aspergillus taxa), mainly found at 15 m and 45 m from the cave entrance; on the bodies of bats it was 36 taxa (mainly Aspergillus taxa), especially on their wing membranes (21 taxa, nine of which were exclusively found in this microhabitat); and in guano 10 fungal taxa (especially Aspergillus and Penicillium) were found. The fungal richness associated with guano (fresh and non-fresh) was similar from bats with different eating habits (insectivorous, frugivorous, and haematophagous). Sampling effort was not sufficient to reveal the total fungal taxa richness estimated. Eight (21.6%) of the 37 genera and 17 (53.1%) of the 32 identified fungal species are reported for the first time in caves. Our results highlight bat caves in Brazil as hotspots of fungal diversity, emphasizing the need to protect such special roosts.
Highlights
Bat caves are special habitats which harbour large bat communities that frequently surpass 100,000 individuals [e.g. 1, 2]
Bat caves as hotspots of fungal diversity filamentous fungi isolates, part of the LSU (D1/D2 domains) region of 28 yeasts isolates, and part of the TUB2 gene of 15 isolates selected from the other filamentous fungi Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Talaromyces, respectively
In Ascomycota (28 genera), the genus Aspergillus presented the largest number of taxa (12), followed by Penicillium, Cladosporium, and Talaromyces
Summary
Bat caves are special habitats which harbour large bat communities that frequently surpass 100,000 individuals [e.g. 1, 2]. Such caves provide specific microclimatic conditions that favour many species of bats to use these underground environments [2,3,4]. Bat caves as hotspots of fungal diversity. Funding for fieldwork was partially provided by the Fundacão Grupo Boticario de Protecão à Natureza http://www.fundacaogrupoboticario.org.br and the Anglo American - https://brasil.angloamerican. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
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