Word: palmellococcus
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...Paris, Biologists Marcel Lefevre and Guy Laporte found that they were teeming with microorganisms. Yet only one was multiplying massively enough to produce the ugly green discoloration on the cave walls. The culprit, the scientists report in the British journal Studies in Speleology, was a hardy, spherical alga called Palmellococcus...
...microscopic plant probably flourished in the cave in prehistoric times, but reappeared only when man brought it back with him in the mud and dirt of his shoes. Palmellococcus' life was made all the more comfortable when man installed artificial lights in the cave, circulated the air with huge blowers and, most important of all, introduced a host of algal nutrients...
Like other algae, Palmellococcus thrives on light, moisture, mineral salts and carbon dioxide. Yet when it can feed on such organic substances as sweat, pollen and bacteria-which were also brought into the grotto-it will multiply well even in dim light. If enough of these nutrients are present, it can survive without any light at all. In fact, it was this steady buildup of organic matter, Lefevre and Laporte say, that enabled Palmellococcus to proliferate even when the cave was shut down and left in total darkness...
...reduce the algae's bacterial food supply, the scientists fumigated the grotto with an aerosol of powerful antibiotics (penicillin, streptomycin and kanamycin). Next, they tackled Palmellococcus itself. They found that a spray of formaldehyde mixed with detergent not only killed the algae-which gradually lost their color-but had no ill effect on the paintings themselves...
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