SOIL BIODIVERSITY & HUMAN HEALTH
https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/pdf/nature15744.pdf
• Soil biodiversity provides benefits to human health - suppresses disease-causing soil organisms, & provides clean air, water, & food
• Poor land-management and environmental change destroying soil biodiversity
• Can be maintained & partially restored
• Interactions between microbes, animals, and plants that provide benefits for humans - Provides disease control, influences quality of food/air/water
• Land-use change (urbanization, agriculture, deforestation, & desertification) have a ripple effecto n soils and soil biodiversity that extends far beyond original site of disturbance
• Impacts of the use and mismanagement of land on human health due to 1. Changes in the prevalence of antagonists for soil-born pests and pathogens that cause disease in humans
2. Changes in soil biodiversity that affect the maintenance of health
• Exposure to soil microorganisms lessen s allergies