Work

Beta-diversity of urban vegetation shapes microbial heterogeneity and maintains healthy environment

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The biodiversity hypothesis links urban species richness to human immunity, yet overlooks habitat heterogeneity that can quarantine pathogenic microbiota. We propose the β-diversity hypothesis: increased tree heterogeneity promotes urban microbial heterogeneity and improve human health. Using plant surveys and paired data of soil, phyllosphere and airborne microbiota transferred indoors (AMTI) across 72 Shanghai neighborhoods, we showed that elevated tree heterogeneity corresponds to higher β-diversity in both AMTI and soil communities. The spatial patterning of respiratory diseases (RDs) was driven by AMTI β-heterogeneity, revealing that homogenization of airborne microbiota affects human respiratory health. We further developed the urban tree βdis model and identified a threshold value of 0.661. Selecting phylogenetically distant tree families, e.g. Arecaceae, Oleaceae and Magnoliaceae at or above this threshold yields ready-to-use planting templates that maintains AMTI β-diversity and a scalable protocol for city-wide greening. Given microbial heterogeneity’s emerging health links, our findings call for embedding the β-diversity hypothesis into biodiversity–health frameworks and for cross-biome validation. Urban green spaces are linked to better human health, however whether lant species heterogeneity also influences better health outcomes remains unclear. Here, Zhao et al., propose the beta-diversity hypothesis, using data from 72 neighborhoods across Shanghai.

Source: Nature Communications

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-72572-9