New Publication from my Masters!

Outdoor Atmospheric Microbial Diversity is Associated with Urban Landscape Structure and Differs from Indoor-Transit Systems as Revealed by Mobile Monitoring and Three-Dimensional Spatial Analysis

In this study with @PelegKremer and others we investigated how the 3D shape of Philadelphia influences the biogeography and diversity of bacteria in outdoor air in indoor transit systems. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.620461/abstract

We drove ~1900 km collecting bacteria from the air and related that to a 3D model of Philadelphia using the STructure of URban LAndscape model!

This model breaks a city up into units and categorizes them by their landscape elements. For example STURLA class tgplm contains trees, grass, pavement, low rise, and mid rise buildings. Examples can be seen here.

We found that microbial communities different between indoor and outdoor air as well as the different ways we drove about the city. There was greater microbial diversity outdoors too.

Likewise, phylogenetic diversity, predicted functional diversity, and richness all correlated to exposure with specific landscape structures, such as units of land composed of trees, grass, pavement, low rise building, and mid rise buildings (STURLA class tgplm)

Outdoor air was similar in likely source appointment and had a more taxonomically diverse potentially pathogenic fraction. Indoor air was dominated by enteric bacteria (farts??)

Much more in the paper. Feel free to DM if you have any questions!

Here’s an ASMR reading of the abstract