Microbial Diversity on the Surface of Historical Monuments in Lingyan Temple, Jinan, China

Lingyan Temple is an important part of the World Heritage Mixed Property on Mount Taishan, in which numerous cultural heritage monuments, including exquisite painted arhat statues and inscriptions, display the ancient Chinese Buddhist culture. However, these monuments are suffering aesthetic and structural damage due to rich biofilms. In this study, the microbial communities colonized on historical monuments in different microenvironments were characterized through a combination of culture-dependent techniques and high-throughput sequencing. Microbial diversity was significantly different among the historical sites with different microenvironments. For example, Actinobacteria and Ascomycota were the core phyla in the indoor samples, while they were less abundant in the outdoor samples, and phototrophic microorganisms including Cyanobacteria and green algae were only dominant in the samples near springs. The results suggested that environmental factors such as water and airborne microorganisms may be the main causes influencing microbial distribution. Most of the identified dominant species were common on the historical monuments and could contribute to biodeterioration. This analysis of microbiota will provide further information on the biodeterioration processes and preservation strategies of cultural heritage monuments in Lingyan Temple.