Lampenflora communities from Carlsbad Cavern (domain Archaea)

Photosynthetic communities of microorganisms known as lampenflora have been proliferating in Carlsbad Caverns National Park and other show caves worldwide due to artificial lighting systems used for ease of visitor access. These microbial communities are a detriment to the aesthetics of the caves and can degrade the underlying speleothems and cave surfaces on which they grow. The National Park Service recently modernized the lighting in Carlsbad Cavern to an LED system that allows adjustment of color temperature and intensity. We assessed how lampenflora responded to changes in lighting by monitoring photosynthetic communities over the course of a year. This submission contains 16S rRNA gene libraries of the domain Archaea.