## 3 Results  
Soil and/or sediment temperatures ranged from 10 to 14.7 \({}^{\circ}\)C outside the caves (study sites number I) and from 0.8 to 7.4 \({}^{\circ}\)C inside them (\(p\)\({}_{\mathrm{study\;sites\;I,\;II}}\) = 0.000175 for the Brestovska Cave, \(p\)\({}_{\mathrm{study\;sites\;I,\;VIII}}\) = 0.000175 for the Demanovska L'adova Cave and \(p\)\({}_{\mathrm{study\;sites\;I,\;VI}}\) = 0.000175 for the Demanovska Slobody Cave) (Table 1). The lowest temperature of the soil and/or sediment samples was recorded at the study sites VI and VII for the Brestovska Cave (\(p\)\({}_{\mathrm{study\;sites\;II,\;VI}}\) = 0.002538), the study site VII for the Demanovska L'adova Cave (\(p\)\({}_{\mathrm{study\;sites\;III,\;VII}}\) = 0.000175), and in the study site VIII for the Demanovska Slobody Cave (\(p\)\({}_{\mathrm{study\;sites\;III,\;VIII}}\) = 0.030805) (Table 1). A total of 67 keratinophilic and keratinocyte fungal isolates were cultured from 24 samples of soil/sediment collected from the 3 studied caves. Isolates were clustered into 32 major groups through macro- and micro- morphological characteristics (Table S1). In turn, the ITS sequence of 32 fungi showed that they belonged to 18 different fungal species (Table 2). PCR products of the nucleotide sequences (ITS rDNA) from 32 tested fungal cultures ranged from 362 to 536 bps. The sequences were submitted to GenBank under the accession numbers from OL362050 to OL362081. Based on a BLAST analysis, the E values were zero, the percentages of the query cover amounted to 100%, and identity ranged from 99.28 to 100% (Table S1). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Study Sites 1**} & \multicolumn{5}{c}{**Temperature of Soil/sediment (\({}^{\circ}\)C)**} \\ \cline{2-6}  & **Brestovska Cave** & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Demianovska Ladova**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Demianovska Slobody Cave**} \\ \hline I & 10.0 & a 2 & 10.8 & a & 14.7 & a \\ II & 6.3 & b & 3.5 & c & 7.2 & c \\ III & 6.2 & bc & 2.6 & d & 6.9 & d \\ IV & 6.1 & bc & 3.5 & c & 6.9 & d \\ V & 6.1 & bc & 2.7 & d & 7.1 & c \\ VI & 6.0 & c & 2.8 & d & 7.4 & b \\ VII & 6.0 & c & 0.8 & e & 7.2 & c \\ VIII & 6.2 & bc & 4.1 & b & 6.7 & e \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: The average of temperature of soil/sediment (\(n\) = 9) measured in the studied Slovak caves. 1 See Figure 1 for locations (I—outside underground facilities, II–VIII—inside underground facilities). 2 Letters refer to the [PERSON]’s HSD test (\(\alpha\leq 0.05\)) and different letters indicate significant differences between the temperature of soil and sediment in a given location; they refer to means along the columns. All identified keratinophilic and keratinolytic fungal cultures belonged to Ascomycota, including 7 families (Arthrodermataceae, Aspergillus, Clavicipitaceae, Cordycipitaceae, Nectriaceae, Onygenaceae, and Pseudourotiaceae), and 10 genera (_Aphanoascus, Arthroderna, Aspergillus, Chrysosporium, Cordyceps, Cosmospora, Keratinophytron, Metapochonia, Penicillin, and Pseudogymnouscus_). Most fungal species belonged to the Aspergillus family, and _Arthroderma_ or _Penicillium_ genera (Table 2). All fungi were detected inside the caves, except _Aspergillus fumigatus_, which was the sole species isolated from the outer study sites of the Demanovska Ladova Cave (Table 2). Overall, _Arthroderma quadrifatum_ was the most common fungus (12 out of 24 study sites) in the soil and/or sediments samples collected from inside and outside locations in all of the three studied caves (Table 2). The propagation structures of this species accounted for 50% of all fungi cultured from the samples outside the underground sites, and 20.8% of all fungi obtained from the samples inside the caves. Moreover, _Pseudogymnouscus pamorum_ should also be mentioned, as it accounted for 18.7% of the total from the samples inside the caves (Figure 2).