Tools to improve built environment data collection for indoor microbial ecology investigations

Recent studies have greatly increased our knowledge of microbial ecology of the indoor environments in which we live and work. However, the number of studies collecting robust, long-term data using standardized methods to characterize important building characteristics, indoor environmental conditions, or human occupancy - collectively referred to as “built environment data” - remain limited. Insufficiently described built environment data can limit our ability to compare microbial ecology results from one indoor environment to another or to use the results to assess how best to control indoor microbial communities. This work first reviews recent literature on microbial community characterization in indoor environments (primarily those that utilized molecular methods), paying particular attention to the level of assessment of influential built environment characteristics and the specific methods and procedures that were used to collect those data. Based on those observations, we then describe a large suite of indoor environmental and building design and operational parameters that can be measured using standardized methods to inform experimental design in future studies of the microbial ecology of the built environment. This work builds upon the recently developed MIxS-BE package that identifies high-level minimal built environment metadata to collect in microbial ecology studies, primarily by providing more justification, detail, and context for these important parameters and others from the perspective of engineers and building scientists. It is our intent to provide microbial ecologists with knowledge of many of the tools available for built environment data collection, as well as some of the constraints and considerations for these tools, which may improve our ability to design indoor microbial ecology studies that can better inform building design and operation.