Maria Nunez and Hugo Hammer recently conducted a study of Scandinavian house foundations, with the goal of investigating the microbes that take advantage of the often moist conditions found in below-grade structures.
The study identified five below-grade “specialist taxa” that were commonly found across all sample sites and analysed the relative ecological preferences of each.
Interestingly, they found that all five taxa strongly preferred walls to ceilings or floors but that substrate (e.g. concrete, wood etc.) was the strongest predictor for the presence of each taxa.
