Cities, biodiversity and health: we need healthy urban microbiome initiatives

ABSTRACT

Current evidence suggests that biodiverse environmental microbiomes contribute positively to human health and could account for known associations between urban green space and improved health. We summarise the state of knowledge that could inform the development of healthy urban microbiome initiatives (HUMI) to re-connect urban populations to biodiverse microbial communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Health
• urban
• microbiomes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

EJF is funded by Australian Research Council grant FL160100101.

Notes on contributors

Emily J. Flies

Emily J. Flies is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Tasmania where she studies the interactions between environment and health. Specifically, she studies a) how the environment influences transmission of vector-borne diseases (i.e. disease ecology) and b) how anthropogenic alteration of the environment (e.g. urbanization and land-use change) impact the microbial communities to which humans are exposed and what that means for human health. In addition to her research, Dr Flies uses is a passionate and experienced science communicator and she uses science to engage and energize her local community.

Chris Skelly

Chris Skelly is the Head of Programmes (Research and Intelligence) at Public Heath Dorset and is working to change the current decision-support culture from the focus on ‘data supply’ to one that emphasises shared ‘system insight’

Rebecca Lovell

Rebecca Lovell is a Lecturer at the University of Exeter Medical School where she works to translate evidence of the linkages between environments and health for policy and practice.

Martin F. Breed

Martin F. Breed is a research fellow at the University of Adelaide where he tackles emerging and pressing issues of how people repair, manage, use and interact with their environment, for the betterment of people and nature.

David Phillips

David Phillips is chief officer for population health for Dorset and visiting professor at Bournemouth and Southampton universities. His interests lie in the application of research to health and care systems practice.

Philip Weinstein

Philip Weinstein is a professorial research fellow at the University of Adelaide where he studies the relationships between human health, ecosystem health and biodiversity