Landscape Architecture and Ecological Relationships

Webinar Description:
Accumulating research has improved our understanding of soil microbial life and how it affects the growth, health, and survival of edible and ornamental plants. We have also begun to learn how exposure to environmental microbes from soil, plants, water, and animals can affect human health in both positive and negative ways. For example, increasing incidence of inflammatory diseases has been correlated with Western and urbanized lifestyles, which tend to have decreased access to outdoor nature, especially in lower income and marginalized communities.

However, since humans evolved for millennia in the presence of environmental microbes associated with living vegetation, soil, and water, our immune systems are not only adapted to coexist with the majority of these microbes, but may even require that interaction to function properly.

In this webinar, Dr. Mhuireach will introduce the body of research investigating human exposure to environmental microbes and their potential health effects. As a single gram of soil can contain billions of microbes, some of which may have immune-promoting qualities, integrating healthy living soil into urban built environments could provide large-scale public health benefits. Prioritizing equitable and accessible green spaces in urban neighborhoods could augment urban-dwellers' interaction with soils and their microbiota, thereby fostering healthy immune development.




Learning Objectives:
1. Learn scientific principles connecting environmental (micro)biodiversity and human health.
2. Understand relationships between human and ecological health based on new knowledge about the importance of microbiomes.
3. Explore the role landscape architecture can play in keeping people healthy by designing for biodiversity.