A primary study on hazards, prevention and control of lampenflora in tourist cave

Lampenflora, growing in tourist caves with the installing of lighting system and tourism activities, will reduce stalactites hardness and change stalactites color, change the native ecosystems, damage the human landscape, decrease the aesthetic value and science value as well as history and cultural values, which goes against sustainable development of tourist caves. The following measures should be taken to nip in the bud before the appearance of lampenflora in tourist caves: preventing spores and seeds entering caves by installing “double door" and vacuum cleaner at the cave entrance or setting foam on both sides of tour route; cleaning litter and soil regularly to reduce nutrients needed by lampenflora growth; improving the spectrum and illumination intensity, and reducing the light duration to inhibit or kill the lampenflora. For tourist caves where lampenflora have grown, physical control, chemical control or other new technology methods should be used. Physical methods include uprooting, high temperature steam jet, hot-water sprinkle and UV irradiation. Chemical control mainly refers to spraying chemical reagents on lampenflora, such as formaldehyde, herbicides, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide, hydrogen peroxide, bleach and so on, or cleaning lampenflora by diluted chemical solution. And calcium hypochlorite has the best effect. There are also other new techniques, e.g., applying nano-TiO2 photo catalytic oxidation technology to control lampenflora.