Research: Residential green space increases diversity of microbiota indoors
Residential green space surrounding the home can add to the diversity of microbiota inside the home. This finding has been reported in the scientific journal ‘Environmental Research’ based on the work of an international research collaboration.
Earlier research findings have suggested that higher microbial diversity in a child’s home, especially when enriched by outdoor environmental microbes, could protect from development of asthma and allergies later in life.
Can these findings be useful to city planning?
According to this study, different types of residential greenness affect the richness of different microbes indoors. While more generally the presence of ’nature’ in the close vicinity of the home increased indoor bacterial diversity, it was especially the presence of higher growing plants, such as bushes and trees in the closer surrounding that were associated with increased fungal diversity in the home.
”We still need confirmation of these findings from future studies and find out whether the impact of residential green space on the indoor microbiome is in fact health promoting. If this was the case, such benefits of residential greenness could be taken into account in city planning, in ways that would support the presence of environmental microbes in the daily lives of children also when growing up in cities”, says THL’s chief researcher Martin Täubel.
In this research, samples were collected in residential homes in Belgium. The study aimed to clarify, how different types of residential green space impact the indoor microbiota. THL’s research team was responsible for the home microbiota measurements and contribute to the statistical analyses.
The article Residential green space can shape the indoor microbial environment has been published in the scientific journal Environmental Research.
Viite
Dockx Y, Täubel M, Bijnens EM, Witters K, Valkonen M, Jayaprakash B, Hogervorst J, Nawrot TS, Casas L. Residential green space can shape the indoor microbial environment. Environ Res. 2021 Jun 23;201:111543. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.111543.
Lisätietoja
Martin Täubel
chief researcher
THL
p. 029 524 6466
[email protected]
Maria Valkonen
researcher
THL
p. 029 524 7717
[email protected]
