Human health-biodiversity links
We aim to improve understanding of links between environments and human health because we are connected by our microbiomes.
Do healthier ecosystems make us healthier people? We are exploring links between biodiversity and human health, especially focussed on the microbiome pathway. Understanding these connections is particularly important due to disconnection from nature and rising diseases of immune dysfunction in urban environments. From a young age we are seeded with microbes from our environment, and the microbial communities, genes and byproducts (microbiomes) of our skin, airway and gut perform key roles in our immune system and metabolism. However, the character of microbes we are exposed to shifts with environmental quality, with potential for beneficial or adverse health influences.
Projects
People, Cities & Nature: Restoring health-promoting soil biodiversity
We are working with researchers and community in Aotearoa New Zealand to develop ‘how to’ guidelines to restore urban forest soils for improved health and wellbeing.
Selected papers
Bioenergentic mapping of ‘healthy microbiomes’ via compound processing potential imprinted in gut and soil metagenomes (2024)
Naturally-diverse airborne environmental microbial exposures modulate the gut microbiome and may provide anxiolytic benefits in mice (2020)
Ecosystem restoration is integral to humanity's recovery from COVID-19 (2022)
Harnessing soil biodiversity to promote human health in cities (2023)
Can bacterial indicators of a grassy woodland restoration inform ecosystem assessment and microbiota-mediated human health? (2019)
Vertical Stratification in Urban Green Space Aerobiomes (2020)
Ambient soil cation exchange capacity inversely associates with infectious and parasitic disease risk in regional Australia (2018)
The potential of outdoor environments to supply beneficial butyrate-producing bacteria to humans (2021)
Biodiversity and human health: A scoping review and examples of underrepresented linkages (2024)
