The Habitats Humans Provide: Factors affecting the diversity and composition of arthropods in houses

Misha Leong,Robert R Dunn,Michelle D Trautwein,Keith M Bayless,Matthew A Bertone,Amy M Savage

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-15584-2

Abstract

The indoor biome is a novel habitat which recent studies have shown exhibit not only high microbial diversity, but also high arthropod diversity. Here, we analyze findings from a survey of 50 houses (southeastern USA) within the context of additional survey data concerning house and room features, along with resident behavior, to explore how arthropod diversity and community composition are influenced by physical aspects of rooms and their usage, as well as the lifestyles of human residents. We found that indoor arthropod diversity is strongly influenced by access to the outdoors and carpeted rooms hosted more types of arthropods than non-carpeted rooms. Arthropod communities were similar across most room types, but basements exhibited more unique community compositions. Resident behavior such as house tidiness, pesticide usage, and pet ownership showed no significant influence on arthropod community composition. Arthropod communities across all rooms in houses exhibit trophic structure—with both generalized predators and scavengers included in the most frequently found groups. These findings suggest that indoor arthropods serve as a connection to the outdoors, and that there is still much yet to be discovered about their impact on indoor health and the unique ecological dynamics within our homes.

Highlights

The indoor biome is a novel habitat which recent studies have shown exhibit high microbial diversity, and high arthropod diversity
We found that a variety of physical features had a significant effect on the number of morphospecies and families of arthropods found in particular rooms of houses (Table 1)
When we considered lifestyle characteristics of residents within particular homes, we found that the diversity and the composition of the core arthropod community did not significantly vary between houses based on presence of cats or dogs, number of houseplants, pesticide usage, or relative levels of clutter and dust accumulation

Summary

Introduction

The indoor biome is a novel habitat which recent studies have shown exhibit high microbial diversity, and high arthropod diversity. Arthropod communities across all rooms in houses exhibit trophic structure—with both generalized predators and scavengers included in the most frequently found groups. These findings suggest that indoor arthropods serve as a connection to the outdoors, and that there is still much yet to be discovered about their impact on indoor health and the unique ecological dynamics within our homes. Arthropods are the most diverse group of organisms found indoors Because of their ubiquity and mobility, arthropods can serve as important agents of movement for microbiota[15,16], but they make up a diverse indoor community themselves[5], with many species having functional consequences for www.nature.com/scientificreports/. Little work has been done to characterize the species diversity and indoor distribution patterns of arthropods in human homes, aside from extensive research on a handful of well-known pest species

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Conclusion