Abundance and absence: Human-microbial co-evolution in the Anthropocene

Bradshaw, Aaron

doi:10.1177/20530196231153925

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Animals' geographies commitment to the indeterminate nature of large organisms, I suggest, is consistent with recent scientific reconceptualisations which frame microbial communities as intelligent and hyper-adaptive life forms (e.g., Westerhoff et al, 2014), a theme also taken up in recent social scientific and geographic research (Clark and Hird, 2013;2018). Other research has discussed this adaptability particularly in its relation to anthropogenic environments of urbanisation, pollution, and antimicrobial warfare (Bradshaw, 2023), which the current paper extends through examples of microbial agency in water treatment, sewage treatment, and spontaneous urban ecological succession.…”

Section: Animals' Geographies and Urban Ecologiessupporting

confidence: 74%

“…Further to this, microbiologist Michael Gillings (2017 has suggested that, at the molecular level, human actions over the past century have increased the rate of microbial evolvability per se, by selecting for increased rates of lateral genetic transfer and hyper-mutable strains through unprecedented levels of chemical stress. Urban infrastructures synergise with and reinforce these molecular processes at the macroscale (see Bradshaw, 2023). Such arguments further the notion that the model of human-microbial co-evolution glossed above is certainly not about humans controlling and directing microbial agencies down preferred paths.…”

Section: Discussion: Human-microbial Co-evolution In Urban Settingsmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…AMR is a public health crisis, but this phenomenon also blurs the boundaries between 'pathogenic' and 'non-pathogenic' microbes. AMR determinants are routinely carried by non-pathogenic microbes, only to be spread to more virulent strains via lateral genetic transfer (see Bradshaw, 2023 for an example related to the origin of inti1). The…”

Section: Middlesex Filter Beds: Microbes From the Pathogenic To The P...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The invisible city: The unglamorous biogeographies of urban microbial ecologies

Bradshaw

2023

Preprint

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More-than-human, multispecies, and animals’ geographic accounts of the city have tended to focus on large, charismatic, and wild organisms, to the detriment of spatially invisible other-than-humans central to urban reproduction. At the same time, urban microbial geographies have foregrounded embodied interactions between humans and microorganisms, whether they are symbiotic or pathogenic, often marginalising the material contributions of extracorporeal microbiomes to the urban fabric. Building from these two blindspots, this article focuses on microbial ecologies that live constitutively outside of (other-than-)human bodies and which are intimately caught up in the metabolic intensities and infrastructural environments of the urban realm. There are two key aims: 1) to explore different forms of urban microbial ecologies and 2) to examine their relationships with urban infrastructures and reproduction. My disciplinary lenses are animals’ geographies and urban ecology and my case study focuses on urban water metabolism. Thus, based on empirical fieldwork on the urban river Lea in East London, and supplemented by scientific literature and technical documents, I analyse three urban microbial ecologies that correspond to the urban realms ‘extended microbiomes’: those involved in slow sand filtration for the treatment of drinkable water, those involved in sewage treatment via the activated sludge process, and those emerging and evolving in disused urban canal infrastructure. These processes spatially manage microbial growth and modulate the distribution of different forms of microbial agency with important effects for the smooth functioning of urban water metabolism. Yet, considering the specific materiality and ecological agency of microbes points to a more-than-human contingency and indeterminacy at the centre of urban reproduction. Urban human-microbial co-evolution and is mired with uncertainties, ‘black boxes’, and unintended consequences.

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Section: Animals' Geographies and Urban Ecologiessupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Discussion: Human-microbial Co-evolution In Urban Settingsmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Middlesex Filter Beds: Microbes From the Pathogenic To The P...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The invisible city: The unglamorous biogeographies of urban microbial ecologies

Bradshaw

2023

Preprint

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The invisible city: The mundane biogeographies of urban microbial ecologies

Bradshaw

2024

Geography and Environment

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More‐than‐human, multispecies and animal geographic accounts of the city have tended to focus on large, charismatic and wild organisms, to the detriment of spatially invisible other‐than‐humans that are central to urban reproduction. At the same time, urban microbial geographies have foregrounded embodied interactions between humans and microorganisms, whether they are symbiotic or pathogenic, often marginalising the material contributions of extracorporeal microbiomes to the urban fabric. Building from these two blindspots, this article focuses on microbial ecologies that live constitutively outside of (other‐than‐)human bodies and which are intimately caught up in the metabolic intensities and infrastructural environments of the urban realm. There are two key aims: (1) to explore different forms of urban microbial ecologies and (2) to examine their relationships with urban infrastructures and reproduction. My disciplinary lenses are animal geography, microbe studies and urban ecology and my case studies are focused on urban water metabolism. Thus, based on empirical fieldwork on the urban River Lea in East London and supplemented by scientific literature and technical documents, I analyse three urban microbial ecologies that correspond to the urban realms’ ‘extended microbiomes’: those involved in slow sand filtration for the treatment of drinkable water, those involved in sewage treatment via the activated sludge process and those emerging and evolving in disused urban canal infrastructure. These processes spatially manage microbial growth and modulate the distribution of different forms of microbial agency with important effects for the smooth functioning of urban water metabolism. I suggest these ecologies correspond to the ‘spaces' of microbes in the city, and characterise a mundane system of repetition and regulation. However, microbes continue to assert their agency within the spaces of urban water metabolism, create their own places and worlds and highlight a more‐than‐human contingency and indeterminacy at the heart of urban reproduction.

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The Microbiome and Infectious Diseases

Haraoui,

Blaser

2023

Clinical Infectious Diseases

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Our perception of microbes has considerably changed since the recognition of their pathogenic potential in the 19th century. The discovery of antibiotics and their subsequent widespread adoption have substantially altered the landscape of medicine, providing us with treatment options for many infectious diseases and enabling the deployment of previously risky interventions (eg, surgical procedures and chemotherapy), while also leading to the rise of AMR. The latter is commonly viewed as the predominant downside of antibiotic use. However, with the increasing recognition that all metazoan organisms rely on a community of microbes (the microbiota) for normal development and for most physiologic processes, the negative impacts of antibiotic use now extend well beyond AMR. Using the iceberg as a metaphor, we argue that the effects of antibiotics on AMR represent the tip of the iceberg, with much greater repercussions stemming from their role in the rise of so-called noncommunicable diseases (including obesity, diabetes, allergic and autoimmune diseases, neurodevelopmental disorders, and certain cancers). We highlight some of the emerging science around the intersection of the microbiome, antibiotic use, and health (including biological costs and future therapeutic avenues), and we advocate a more nuanced approach in evaluating the impacts of proposed antibiotic use, especially in the setting of preexposure and postexposure prophylaxis.

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Abundance and absence: Human-microbial co-evolution in the Anthropocene

Cited by 3 publications

References 149 publications

The invisible city: The unglamorous biogeographies of urban microbial ecologies

The invisible city: The unglamorous biogeographies of urban microbial ecologies

The invisible city: The mundane biogeographies of urban microbial ecologies

The Microbiome and Infectious Diseases

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