Scientific Articles
This is the collection of scientific articles that I’ve been an author on, from perspectives and opinions to original research.
If you encounter a pay-wall, please get in touch.
Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Restoration Ecology: A Call to Listen Deeply, to Engage with, and Respect Indigenous Voices
If the restoration sector wishes to partner with Indigenous communities leading TEK efforts, it needs to understand established international agreements and proactively protect intellectual property and data sovereignty rights. To illustrate a theme of ethical engagement, we present risks to TEK integrity while highlighting engagement that has successfully promoted Indigenous leadership and self‐determination. We propose that a decade of responsible and respectful restoration will be achieved only with shared principles and an ethical code of conduct for TEK partnerships.
Transfer of environmental microbes to the skin and respiratory tract of humans after urban green space exposure
We show that exposure to urban green spaces can increase skin and nasal microbial diversity and alter human microbiota composition. Our study improves our understanding of human-environmental microbial interactions and suggests that increased exposure to diverse outdoor environments may increase the microbial diversity, which could lead to positive health outcomes for non-communicable diseases.
Revegetation of urban green space rewilds soil microbiotas with implications for human health and urban design
We provide the first evidence, as far as we know, that revegetation can improve urban soil microbiota diversity toward a more natural, biodiverse state by creating more wild habitat conditions.
Naturally-diverse airborne environmental microbial exposures modulate the gut microbiome and may provide anxiolytic benefits in mice
Our results point to an intriguing new hypothesis: that biodiverse soils may represent an important supplementary source of butyrate-producing bacteria capable of resupplying the mammalian gut microbiome, with potential for gut health and mental health benefits.
Can bacterial indicators of a grassy woodland restoration inform ecosystem assessment and microbiota-mediated human health?
We found two key indicator groups emerged: ‘opportunistic taxa’ that decreased in relative abundance with restoration and more stable and specialist, ‘niche-adapted taxa’ that increased.
Relating Urban Biodiversity to Human Health With the ‘Holobiont’ Concept
The health of holobionts, including humans, is fundamentally linked to the health of ecosystems and potentially driven by the state of environmental microbiota.
Walking ecosystems in microbiome-inspired green infrastructure: an ecological perspective on enhancing personal and planetary health
Recognizing that all forms of life—both the seen and the unseen—are in some way connected (ecologically, socially, evolutionarily), paves the way to valuing reciprocity in the nature–human relationship.
High-throughput eDNA monitoring of fungi to track functional recovery in ecological restoration
Our results highlight eDNA metabarcoding as a useful restoration monitoring tool that allows quantification of changes in important fungal indicator groups linked with functional recovery and, being underground, are normally omitted in restoration monitoring.
Urban habitat restoration provides a human health benefit through microbiome rewilding: the Microbiome Rewilding Hypothesis
Here, we propose the Microbiome Rewilding Hypothesis , which specifically outlines that restoring biodiverse habitats in urban green spaces can rewild the environmental microbiome to a state that enhances primary prevention of human disease.
Revegetation rewilds the soil bacterial microbiome of an old field
With further development, awareness of microbial diversity in restoration has significant scope for improving the efficacy of restoration interventions.