Lose some species, gain an allergy!

When we think of “biodiversity,” we usually think of “loss.”  Biodiversity refers to the variety of species, genes and habitats that inhabit our world. But in the 80s when the term became popular, “biodiversity” already most often referred to downward trends in our natural world. We were discovering the effects of what we have done to the planet since the Industrial Revolution and they were not good. It was already downhill for many species, genes and habitats. Some estimates say that over 30 percent of species will not make it by 2050. 

But there is something we seem to be gaining as we lose biodiversity — allergies! In a study that was published this May in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the US, researchers led by Ilka Hanski of the University of Helsinki, found that there is a link between how varied life forms are and allergies. The study was entitled “Environmental biodiversity, human microbiota, and allergy are interrelated.”

The scientists studied teenagers aged 14-18 who had lived most of their lives in the same homes in eastern Finland. They studied the microbes found on the skin of the teenagers as well as the levels of an antibody called immunoglobin E which appears when our bodies overly react to common substances like pollen that are not usually harmful. The scientists also classified the type of environment where the teenagers lived in terms of it being built-up, forested, farmed as well as the variety of plants surrounding their homes. They found that teenagers who were more prone to allergies had less varied forms of a kind of bacteria called gammaproteobacteria commonly found in soil and plant surfaces and those who had more forms of that bacteria had less allergies.  Also, the more natural the home area was as opposed to being built-up, the less allergies the teenagers had and the more gammaproteobacteria forms they had on their skin. 

In short, the more urbanized we become, the more we lose in terms of soil (habitat) and plants where these forms of bacteria live. If they do not have anywhere to live, they cannot get on our skin and if they don’t, then we do not get the help that our immune system needs to make our bodies cope with our environment.

This should really worry us since now, with our growing population, we are increasingly driven to live in high-rises when the most contact you would have with soil and plants is when they are potted. The value of plants is not just to give us oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide, they are the habitats of microbeasts, some of which help us fight the micro-wars inside our bodies. 

Maybe the geniuses that we are, getting ourselves into this mess could also think of a creative way to recreate some form of biodiversity that is vertical. Not just vertical farms but vertical forests. I know that it will never be the same as the forests we know of now but maybe nature will show us if we give her some space to reinvent herself. Maybe not acacia or narra or mahogany. Maybe not even all soil and not exactly the same forest flora we know of but maybe some plants that are strange and creative enough to thrive in vertical directions. Maybe if we learn how to create living spaces with vertical forests, we can gain some points in favor of our immune system and the planet.

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