Hi, did you wash your caving suit?

I’m asking because this can save the life of some bats or other cave animals out there. Although you don’t usually see it, caves are full of microbial life – bacteria, archaea (like bacteria but even stranger), fungi, viruses… Most of them are beneficial and stay at the base of the food chain for many cave invertebrates, drive biogeochemical cycling, and even contribute to cave formation; additionally, multiple researchers consider them a great source of novel antibiotics and other bioactive compounds, or as model species of the earliest life on Earth and even on other planets.

Yet, there are cave microbes that are dangerous pathogens, such as the white-nose fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans or Pd, which causes white-nose disease. It doesn’t affect humans as it only grows at low temperatures but it is deadly to hibernating bats, having killed millions of them in the past decades. As spores of Pd can be easily transported on caving equipment, properly washing your suit and other gear is crucial for disease prevention. To prove this, I spent quite a few years analysing samples and conducting experiments, together with the best in the field. As a result, we developed these cave hygiene instructions in different languages, balancing the needs of cave and bat conservation and cavers’ desire to explore more.

But what about other cave microbes? Can they also stick to caving suits and transport diseases? Nobody knows yet, which is the reason we launched a research project in the most emblematic European cave – Gouffre Berger. There, we collected samples from the cave substrate all the way to the bottom as well as from caving suits of expedition participants. When we complete our metagenomic analysis, we’ll be able to tell you how much of cave microbial diversity you can bring with you so stay tuned.