Landscape Architecture Theses and Dissertations

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Browsing Landscape Architecture Theses and Dissertations by Author "Mhuireach, Gwynne A."

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    Relationships Among Airborne Microbial Communities, Urban Land Uses and Vegetation Cover: Implications for Urban Planning and Human Health
    (University of Oregon, 2018-09-06) Mhuireach, Gwynne A.; Johnson, Bart
    Variation in exposure to environmental microbial communities has been implicated in the etiology of allergies, asthma and other chronic and immune disorders. In particular, preliminary research suggests that exposure to a high diversity of microbes during early life, for example through living in highly vegetated environments like farms or forests, may have specific health benefits, including immune system development and stimulation. In the face of rapidly growing cities and potential reductions in urban greenspace, it is vital to clarify our understanding of the relationship between vegetation and microbial communities so that we can better design cities that support human health. To explore whether and how urban airborne bacterial communities vary with the amount and structural diversity of nearby vegetation, I used passive air sampling and culture-independent microbial DNA sequencing combined with more traditional landscape architecture tools, including geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing data. The results indicated that locations with little vegetation (i.e., paved parking lots) were marked by significantly different bacterial composition from areas that were heavily vegetated (parks and forests). These differences were largely driven by taxonomic groups and indicator species that were enriched at certain sites. My work also shows that regional agricultural activities during the summer may have a substantial effect on airborne bacterial communities in the Eugene-Springfield metropolitan area (Oregon), specifically through elevated abundance of Sphingomonas faeni, a taxon previously isolated from hay dust. The second part of my work focused on building a conceptual bridge between scientific findings and potential design principles that can be tested in practical application. I performed a narrative review of vegetation-health, vegetation-microbe, and microbe-health relationships, which formed the foundation of a framework to translate scientific findings into design-relevant concepts. Strengthening this linkage between science and design will help ensure that research questions are relevant to design practice and that new scientific knowledge is accessible to designers. This dissertation includes previously published and unpublished co-authored material.