TY - JOUR
T1 - Airborne Bacteria in Outdoor Air and Air of Mechanically Ventilated Buildings at City Scale in Hong Kong across Seasons
AU - Zhou, You
AU - Lai, Yonghang
AU - Tong, Xinzhao
AU - Leung, Marcus H.Y.
AU - Tong, Jimmy C.K.
AU - Ridley, Ian A.
AU - Lee, Patrick K.H.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong through Project 11215017 and the Environment Conservation Fund through Project 2015–17. We thank for the support provided by the staff of the buildings during sampling.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2020/10/6
Y1 - 2020/10/6
N2 - Studies of the indoor airborne microbiome have mostly been confined to a single location and time point. Here, we characterized, over the course of a year, the geographic variation, building-function dependence, and dispersal characteristics of indoor and outdoor airborne microbiomes (bacterial members only) of eight mechanically ventilated commercial buildings. Based on the Sloan neutral model, airborne microbiomes were randomly dispersed in the respective indoor and outdoor environments and between the two environments during each season. The dominant taxa in the indoor and outdoor environments showed minor variations at each location among seasons. The airborne microbiomes displayed weak seasonality for both indoor and outdoor environments, while a weak geographic variation was found only for the indoor environments. Source tracking results show that outdoor air and occupant skin were major contributors to the indoor airborne microbiomes, but the extent of the contribution from each source varied within and among buildings over the seasons, which suggests variations in local building use. Based on 32 cases of indoor airborne microbiome data, we determined that the indoor/outdoor (I/O) ratio of PM2.5 was not a robust indicator of the sources found indoors. Alternatively, the indoor concentration of carbon dioxide was more closely correlated with the major sources of the indoor airborne microbiome in mechanically ventilated environments.
AB - Studies of the indoor airborne microbiome have mostly been confined to a single location and time point. Here, we characterized, over the course of a year, the geographic variation, building-function dependence, and dispersal characteristics of indoor and outdoor airborne microbiomes (bacterial members only) of eight mechanically ventilated commercial buildings. Based on the Sloan neutral model, airborne microbiomes were randomly dispersed in the respective indoor and outdoor environments and between the two environments during each season. The dominant taxa in the indoor and outdoor environments showed minor variations at each location among seasons. The airborne microbiomes displayed weak seasonality for both indoor and outdoor environments, while a weak geographic variation was found only for the indoor environments. Source tracking results show that outdoor air and occupant skin were major contributors to the indoor airborne microbiomes, but the extent of the contribution from each source varied within and among buildings over the seasons, which suggests variations in local building use. Based on 32 cases of indoor airborne microbiome data, we determined that the indoor/outdoor (I/O) ratio of PM2.5 was not a robust indicator of the sources found indoors. Alternatively, the indoor concentration of carbon dioxide was more closely correlated with the major sources of the indoor airborne microbiome in mechanically ventilated environments.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85092681277&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acs.est.9b07623
DO - 10.1021/acs.est.9b07623
M3 - Article
C2 - 32852192
AN - SCOPUS:85092681277
SN - 0013-936X
VL - 54
SP - 11732
EP - 11743
JO - Environmental Science and Technology
JF - Environmental Science and Technology
IS - 19
ER -