Growing evidence suggests that getting cozy with soil microbes, especially as kids, can guard against allergic disease. Credit: Jenna Stensland
A global question
(Microbial) community matters
Crucially, simply having a broader diversity of microbes doesn't seem to matter. Instead, it's all about which microbes a soil has. "It looks like there are a number of taxa that are promoting health, and ones that are negatively associated, which makes sense - not everything out there is good," Ladau said. What's more, he added, those negative ones weren't already known as pathogens, adding to the novelty of the discovery.
This doesn't prove that soil microbes are causing kids to have less allergic disease, only that the two seem to go hand-in-hand. But so far, Ladau said, no other factor has emerged that accounts for that link.
Besides establishing whether the connection is causative, Ladau would like to investigate ways to promote public exposure to potentially healthful soils. This could happen through encouraging people to spend more time outdoors, but also through policies and land management strategies aimed at conserving and restoring soils-which can also improve soils' ability to sequester carbon, remediate fire damage, decompose detritus, and control pest prevalence. Human health only adds to that list of boons, Ladau said.
"Linking soil biodiversity to public health provides a major additional facet to the importance of soils and what's living in them," he said.
Abstract information:
Microbial Diversity in Soils Is the Top Predictor of Global Rates of Childhood Allergic Disease
Tuesday, 16 December, 2:15 - 5:45 P.M. CST
Hall EFG, Poster Hall (Convention Center)
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