Department of Chemical and Physical Health Risks, Unit Health Impact Assessment, Sciensano (Belgian Institute of Health), Brussels, Belgium.
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Division Forest, Nature and Landscape, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Leuven, Belgium.
Br Med Bull. 2018 Sep 1;127(1):5-22. doi: 10.1093/bmb/ldy021.
Natural environments and green spaces provide ecosystem services that enhance human health and well-being. They improve mental health, mitigate allergies and reduce all-cause, respiratory, cardiovascular and cancer mortality. The presence, accessibility, proximity and greenness of green spaces determine the magnitude of their positive health effects, but the role of biodiversity (including species and ecosystem diversity) within green spaces remains underexplored. This review describes mechanisms and evidence of effects of biodiversity in nature and green spaces on human health.
We identified studies listed in PubMed and Web of Science using combinations of keywords including 'biodiversity', 'diversity', 'species richness', 'human health', 'mental health' and 'well-being' with no restrictions on the year of publication. Papers were considered for detailed evaluation if they were written in English and reported data on levels of biodiversity and health outcomes.
There is evidence for positive associations between species diversity and well-being (psychological and physical) and between ecosystem diversity and immune system regulation.
There is a very limited number of studies that relate measured biodiversity to human health. There is more evidence for self-reported psychological well-being than for well-defined clinical outcomes. High species diversity has been associated with both reduced and increased vector-borne disease risk.
Biodiversity supports ecosystem services mitigating heat, noise and air pollution, which all mediate the positive health effects of green spaces, but direct and long-term health outcomes of species diversity have been insufficiently studied so far.
Additional research and newly developed methods are needed to quantify short- and long-term health effects of exposure to perceived and objectively measured species diversity, including health effects of nature-based solutions and exposure to microbiota.
自然环境和绿色空间提供生态系统服务，可促进人类健康和福祉。它们可改善心理健康、减轻过敏，并降低全因、呼吸道、心血管和癌症死亡率。绿色空间的存在、可达性、接近度和绿化程度决定了其对健康产生积极影响的程度，但绿色空间内生物多样性（包括物种和生态系统多样性）的作用仍未得到充分探索。本综述描述了自然和绿色空间内生物多样性对人类健康的影响的作用机制和证据。
我们使用包括“生物多样性”、“多样性”、“物种丰富度”、“人类健康”、“心理健康”和“幸福感”等关键词，在 PubMed 和 Web of Science 中组合了列出的研究，并对其进行了无出版年限限制的搜索。如果论文是用英文撰写的，并且报告了生物多样性水平和健康结果数据，则将其视为详细评估的对象。
有证据表明，物种多样性与幸福感（心理和生理）之间以及生态系统多样性与免疫系统调节之间存在正相关关系。
与人类健康相关的测量生物多样性的数据非常有限。与明确界定的临床结果相比，自我报告的心理健康结果更多。高物种多样性与减少和增加媒介传播疾病的风险均有关联。
生物多样性支持缓解热、噪声和空气污染的生态系统服务，所有这些都可调节绿色空间对健康的积极影响，但到目前为止，物种多样性的直接和长期健康结果还没有得到充分研究。
需要开展更多的研究并开发新方法，以量化接触感知和客观测量的物种多样性的短期和长期健康影响，包括自然解决方案和接触微生物组的健康影响。
