Divergent responses of bacterial, fungal, and archaeal communities to wine-storage disturbance in a karst cave

Substrate type principally drove bacterial community differentiation, whereas substrate source exhibited the strongest explanatory power for fungal community composition. Functional predictions indicated that bacterial nitrogen respiration and denitrification were enhanced in the strong and medium zones, and that chitin degradation, human gut-associated and potentially pathogenic functions were enriched on exogenous substrates.

Among archaea, methanogenesis was most abundant in the medium zone, with hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis and dark hydrogen oxidation enhanced on exogenous substrates. TVOC correlated positively with CO₂ and HCHO and negatively with humidity, suggesting that TVOC is a core driver of microbial community restructuring. These results demonstrate that wine-storage activity significantly alters cave gas composition, moisture, and organic carbon inputs, thereby disrupting the low-disturbance, oligotrophic, and stable cave microenvironment.

The superimposed effects of gaseous environmental filtering, exogenous substrate interfacial selection, and microbial input from human activity are responsible for reducing indigenous diversity, promoting tolerant and resource-utilizing taxa, and restructuring cave carbon and nitrogen cycling. Our findings provide a scientific basis for the sustainable management of wine-storage caves and, more broadly, for the conservation of karst cave microecosystems under increasing anthropogenic pressure.</p>