Submitted by universityofturku t3_10e9rw4 in science
Greater biodiversity in one's environment leads to a wider range of defensive measures in one's immune system, leading to a wider variety of defensive measures passed to offspring.
Biodiversity is fairly simple to achieve in suburbia. Most subdivisions have vegetated stormwater infrastructure, like roadside ditches. Having flowering groundcover like clover in the planting plan, allowing native plants to propagate and act like a “meadow,” using various practices (Integrated Pest Management) to control invasive plants, and avoiding mowing during the peak blooms all make a huge difference.
Note too that stormwater systems are generally the connected spaces which allow for animals like frogs and invertebrates to travel. There’s some threat of these ponds turning into ecological traps, but if you build it, they will come. Imperfect habitat is better than no habitat.
Edit: I’ll add that one of the best ways to make a difference is to keep a native wildflower seed blend on-hand (I use spice jars on my belt) and sprinkle/smush onto dirt patches in urban areas. If your plants are native and appropriate for the exposure, you’ve created a little gas station for migrating pollinators.
In Georgia there’s more diversity in the middle of Atlanta than in suburbia. It’s really weird honestly. Car centric suburbs overflowing with HOAs that hate wildflowers and maintain grass is a big issue down south.
>HOAs that hate wildflowers and maintain grass
I guess it's just a matter of taste but I just truly cannot imagine preferring a grass lawn to a meadow of wildflowers.
The mind of the HOA enforcer is a twisted and warped place defined by technicalities and a blurry aspirational picture of white 1950's suburbia.
Tall grasses/meadow flowers encourage other kinds of pests (like snakes, opossums, and rats) to live near your home. You ultimately don’t want them that close, because they can come inside (my mom had a snake in her house last year).
I keep a front yard of grass (also easier for some lawn games), but have garden beds for native plants. Healthy compromise.
Snakes and possums aren't pests, they keep pests away.
and as for rats, cats will keep them out of the home and theyre very skittish. a child playing in a yard of wildflowers and native plants probably wont come into contact with any of those "pests." to the person youre replying to: not all native plant meadows are tall grass and flowers, either. think clover!
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Yes they are, a pest is literally defined by being unwanted. If someone doewnt want them there and they are, they are a pest from their perspective.
Walking barefoot on grass in the summer is such a beautiful sensory experience. Outside of that I prefer just about everything else.
I did that yesterday after a rainstorm following a godawful hot day. I was surprised at how it felt.
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I live in and around Atl, that's not even close to true. The heart of the city is just like any other, maybe a little more green, trees, parks than most. But further out you go from center, the more forests, greenery you find. Our sprawling suburbia is still packed with forests, lakes, rivers, fields. It's still mostly forest if you ever look at it from the sky
But yea, HOAs here are horrible
It may be that some areas of atlanta have more to offer than some suburbs in terms of access to parks. Where I grew up the only park was a 15 min drive of 3 mile run. In the city the closest park is right out front of the door. Depends where in the city obviously but shared green space is more of a thing inside the perimeter than outside neighborhoods. Of course there are some decent neighborhoods with tons of deer but I still prefer in town nature somehow unless we’re talking national parks
Yup. Had to get a fence in order to have a native garden in my backyard here. Rest of the neighborhood is just Bermuda grass.
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HOAs should be banned.
We have Lady Bird Johnson to thank for much of the wildflower diversity — especially in the Midwest where production agriculture dominates the ecosystem.
Wow that was an informative read
I think /r/NoLawns has some good info on clover and wildflower seed blends. They are certainly mentioned relatively frequently.
>Biodiversity is fairly simple to achieve in suburbia.
Less so in high density "concrete jungle" urban environments.
Do you think there could be a difference in a summer pregnancy VS winter? I'm in the Midwest where its lush and green for summer but grey and dead in the winter.
I think there is a difference, but there is no limit to the amount of research and hypotheses about what affects pregnancy. A pregnancy typically lasts long enough to gain some seasonal exposure at some point. If you were concerned about having immunodeficiencies due to a long winter, you should ingest locally sourced honey. Since they gather pollen from neighboring flowers, you’re inoculated to allergen-causing plants (as is the baby, theoretically).
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My family and I inherited land and I have worked on re-introducing more native species of trees and flowering plants for pollinators around the areas near the house. I have breastfed each of my three children, so this is definitely cool to read this morning as I nurse my third.
I’d be interested to see what benefits of raising a child from birth in a big city like New York or Los Angeles would look like, plenty of studies on the downside.
More moxie, a refined taste for pizza, knowledgeable on driving aggressively or defensively, heightened tolerance for crowds and smells.
I'd be interested to know if there even are any benefits. I honestly can't think of any.
People living in cities are less likely to be obese.
As someone living in a very rural area, I wish fervently that my kids were growing up in a more diverse community. I love where we live. But, I hate that their school has... Idk, maybe a half dozen non-white people in it.
Probably tons of useful social skills, better intellectual development, bigger chance to earn a fair wage.
If you look at Google maps on satellite view, try zooming in on the darker spots in urban areas. You'll find that the darker spots are in fact greener and have much larger and more affluent houses than the lighter areas. It's a "thing".
A bunch of confounding factors you’d have to account for
...sounds like these are just allergy-type responses, and the effects are overstated in the post title.
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Meanwhile, here in Melbourne which is claimed to be the child allergies capital of the world...
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