Primordial friends; modern problems.
By Jacob Mills
A long time ago, in an ocean not too far away, a single-celled organism became one of the first lifeforms on Earth, an ancestor to us all (that’s if you believe in that sort of thing). Fast-forward to today, and these marvellous, diverse, enigmatic little beings, around for billions of years before anything you could see with the naked eye, still rule this planet. These are the microbiota, known to us as bacteria, archaea (extremophiles that live in hellish environments), fungi, and multi-cellular but microscopic critters like nematodes. Strictly speaking, ‘microbiota’ are the community of microorganisms in a defined environment, such as on a leaf-surface, in some soil, or on your eye-ball. It is these microorganisms that have allowed the existence of plants and animals, like us, in their microbial world. Here, I’m going to tell you a story. One of ancient friendships and modern betrayals, and ultimately of forgiveness, healing, hope, and action - a story where you are a main character.
Symbiosis and the ‘Way-Back Machine’
Animals are scientifically known as holobionts - from the Greek hólos (whole) and biont (unit of life) - *groan* what an un-fun science word, let’s change that. A holobiont is a kind of ‘meta-organism’ that is a host, that’s us, plus trillions of resident microbes. Although, for us humans where most of the cells and genes in our bodies are microbial rather than human, perhaps they are the host? And the truth is, we can’t survive without them. We can’t be an ‘organism’ without the ‘meta’. In a world where microbes inhabited every life-friendly surface, airstream, and fluid for more than two billion years before larger lifeforms evolved, it was energetically easier for larger lifeforms to co-evolve with the microbes than to keep them out. That is, it was easier for our ancient ancestors to become these meta-organisms, part beast~part bugs and germs (counter to household cleaning product advertisements, bugs and germs are, mostly friendly). This was the evolutionary path of least resistance because keeping yourself sterile is energetically expensive, and so is doing all the work of staying alive - why wait to evolve genes to do something, like say, breaking down harmful toxins, when you can just put a roof over a microbe’s ‘head’ and let it do the work for you. This, is symbiosis; these, are our ‘old-friends’ from a long and winding evolution in the wild.
But it’s not just us. In plant ‘meta-organisms’, microbes produce many vitamins, bioactive compounds, and phytohormones, this must give them a lot of control over the plant. In us, our gut microbes can control our immune systems, and yes, our chocolate cravings - we eat what they want and they are who we choose to feed (diet choice right now is important to control your future self from their mind-bending tricks). We are them, they are us, and we’re inescapably more than human.
‘Meta-organisms’ are ecosystems for microbes. Some of these ecosystems walk and talk (or bark or roar), others cast shade and produce oxygen. And, like a Russian doll, the ecosystems that are you and me are shaped by the ecosystems that we live in. ‘Meta-organisms’ collect their microbiota as seedlings growing through soil, babies departing their birth canals, and children putting every object they can find into their mouths. For people, the first three years of life are the most critical for developing the community of microbes that are so important to our immune development and overall health. These things are like maestros, coordinating our inflammatory responses and digesting our food, among many other things. But, when our ‘old-friends’ aren’t there, we suffer.
Symbiosis in the Anthropocene
The modern world is not a great place to be a ‘meta-organism’. Human actions on this planet are disrupting our ancient friendship with microbes. By wiping out biological diversity (a.k.a. biodiversity, the complex array of plants and animals in nature), taking too many antibiotics (but yes, there is absolutely a right time for these), eating overly processed and nutrient poor foods, and degrading our soils we are wiping out our ‘old-friends’ (and in some cases, creating ‘new enemies’). And our ‘old-friends’ are us. We are creating a world where the microbes that love and protect us are dying out and those that would harm us are thriving. We are seeing an explosion of non-communicable diseases related to losses of our ‘old-friends’. You, me, your house-plants and your veggie patch, David Attenborough and all he’s shown you - we are all little ecosystems, teeming with microbes. And like all ecosystems, we can be degraded. Like driving a bulldozer through a rainforest, we kill what is adapted to us and create space for the weeds, the pathogens.
However, all is not lost. We have a plan.
Nature’s wellbeing is microbial wellbeing is individual wellbeing
The nitrogen in your body, some of the stuff that you need to make proteins and more DNA to divide your cells and grow, comes from the air around you. But we don’t just breathe it in. Soil bacteria take it from the atmosphere, convert it into a form that plants can use, we then eat the plants, or the animals that eat the plants, and gut bacteria help us digest it back to a form that our bodies can use for building itself. And just like that, our ‘old-friends’ help us grow. There are many systems like this where we depend on life that we can’t see. In this microbial world, just like our health, the health of nature itself is fundamentally tied to the health of its microbial communities, and we’re rapidly figuring out how to restore these ancient processes and relationships.
Ecologically restoring landscapes, for example from old, desolate cropland back to native grassy woodlands, influences native soil microbiota and their processes by simply putting plants into the ground, this can work in wild and urban habitats too. This works because plant species promote growth of their symbiotic microbiota by releasing sugars - yummy, irresistible microbe food - into the soil around their roots. Regenerative practices in agriculture can also help to restore the microbial soil communities that are so important for our food quality and ultimately, down-the-line, for our personal health. Some research is also finding that we can speed up these recoveries by inoculating degraded soils with microbiota from healthy soil.
As for us, it is hard to restore the state of the gut microbiota once it is degraded; however, faecal-matter transplants, an inoculation from a healthy gut to a sick one, may be successful cures for certain gut disorders, such as Clostridium difficile infection. A lot of research into restoring the human microbiota is going on as you read this. But, there is nothing quite like a healthy lifestyle and a balanced, diverse diet.
Plant and animal health are better in pristine environments and the wellbeing of nature is important for the wellbeing of microbiota, which in turn is important for the health of the plants, animals, and beyond to the water, air, and back again. Everything is connected, in all directions. Indigenous peoples have understood this for millennia, and there is so much wisdom to be gained and healing to be done if we could only listen to them.
Motivating conservation and restoration action via human wellbeing
We have forgotten it, or simply become ignorant of it, but we are nature. And we now know that trying to escape it is killing us. This is another reason, on top of cultural needs and indigenous sovereignty, that restoring nature needs to be inclusive of the needs of people, of all people. But how do those of us that so long ago ‘forgot’ our indigeneity to this planet, traded in for industrial comforts, remember what our basic needs really are?
We’ve been informed for many years now that biodiversity provides for our most basic needs, like clean air and water, and nutritious food. So why then, is global action on the biodiversity crisis so inert, but for a few? We are having an ‘extinction of experience’ where we are becoming so wholly cut-off from what is truly good for our health and wellbeing that we don’t even know what we need anymore. There are entrenched political and economic systems in place that are causing our crises of climate, biodiversity, disease, and experience. But those responsible are slow, or invested against us. So what can we do with the power of people? Can we reconnect ourselves to the sources of clean air, food, and water; to demand change, to be pro-environmental, pro-you and me?
Our nature connectedness moderates the interactions between our nature contact, wellbeing, and pro-environmental behaviour. Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of needs’ places physiological needs (e.g., air, food, water, sleep) as the base of the ‘needs’ triangle, and safety (e.g. health, security, employment) one step above. Only above these base needs do community needs come into requirement such as love and belonging, and esteem.
Our global community needs to be reconnected to nature in ways that connect the dots from our needs for clean air, food, water, and health to nature’s welfare in informative ways. This is where basic understanding of the links between the health of environmental microbiota and those of humans can help. If we can sit at home and think, ‘I’m feeling pretty anxious today, maybe because my gut microbes are unhealthy because I’ve been eating from a broken food system that has departed from the fruits of healthy soil’, or ‘Am I being exposed, in my suburb, to anxiety-reducing bacteria found in healthy soils?’, then we might also think ‘I miss my ‘old friends’, I need to participate in the conservation and restoration of nature, and ultimately of human health and wellbeing’. However, participating in such a movement is a privilege. We cannot expect those of us that are just trying to regularly feed their children or fight oppression to drop everything and participate. Together, we can lift everyone up, microbes included.
Follow along below