Urban rewilding paper wins Bradshaw Medal
A research paper that recommends increasing urban green spaces to prevent human disease, has won a significant award in its field.
Researchers from the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute and School of Biological Sciences have been awarded the honour of the 2017 Bradshaw Medal.
Their paper, published in Restoration Ecology was titled, 'Urban habitat restoration provides a human health benefit through microbiome rewilding: the Microbiome Rewilding Hypothesis'.
Some key knowledge gaps of the Microbiome Rewilding Hypothesis.
The study proposed restoring biodiverse habitats in urban green spaces can rewild the environmental microbiome to a state that helps prevent human disease as an ecosystem service.
This hypothesis has the potential to be a partial solution to the mass global trends of biodiversity loss and enhances primary prevention of human disease in urban populations.
It also has the possibility of aligning public health investments with restoration activities and biodiversity conservation which will potentially lead to a frameshift in how these environmental activities are funded.
Congratulations to the team involved including:
- PhD candidate Jacob Mills
- Professor Philip Weinstein
- Dr Nicholas Gellie
- Dr Laura Weyrich
- Professor Andrew Lowe
- Dr Martin Breed
This award is presented biennially at the Society for Ecological Restoration World Conference.