Geomicrobiology of Lehman Caves

Lehman Caves is an extensively decorated, high desert cave that represents one of the main tourist attractions in Great Basin National Park in Nevada. We characterized microbial communities associated with secondary mineral deposits in the Gypsum Annex and other regions of the cave in order to describe modern microbial colonization of mineral surfaces and evaluate whether and how microbial communities use gypsum and other secondary precipitates in this oligotrophic desert cave.