3.3. ASV-ratios
The ASV-ratios were generally lower than one (Tab. S1), pointing out that ASV richness values observed in the tourist areas were lower than in the control area.
The results of the models (Tab. 2 and Fig. 3a) performed on the ASV-ratios showed that the ASV-ratio of Fungi was negatively affected by the distance from the tourist path and positively affected by its interaction with the distance from the cave entrance (Fig. 3a). No response was recorded for Bacteria and Archaea in relation to these two parameters (Fig. 3a). In addition, both Fungi and Archaea were negatively affected by the increasing dissimilarity of sediment composition (Fig. 4a). In other words, the number of ASV in the touristic part of Archaea and Fungi declined when sediment composition differed from the control area.
3.4. Beta diversity
The total β-diversity was extremely high (Fungi = 0.96; Bacteria = 0.92; Archaea = 0.93), with the β-richness component being dominant (Fungi = 0.55; Bacteria = 0.54; Archaea = 0.65) over the β-replacement component (Fungi = 0.41; Bacteria = 0.38; Archaea = 0.28). The results of the models (Tab. 2b-c and Fig. 3b-c) performed on the two components showed an effect of the distance from the tourist path on the β-replacement of the prokaryotic component, i.e. Bacteria (Fig. 3b) and Archaea (Fig. 3b). Both groups showed a significant decline of the β-replacement at increasing distance from the cave entrance (Fig. 3b). In parallel, we observed an increase in the β-richness component for Archaea (Fig. 3c) and, to a lesser extent, for Bacteria (Fig. 3c). Our results also highlighted a nearly significant effect of the cave depth on the β-replacement (Fig. 3b), but not on β-richness (Fig. 3c), of Fungi with decreasing species turnover at increasing distance from the cave entrance (Tab. 2b). In addition, β-diversity of Fungi was significantly affected by the sediment composition (Tab. 4), with increasing β-replacement (Fig. 4b) and declining β-richness (Fig. 4c) at increasing dissimilarity in sediment composition from the control areas.