DCropS4OneHealth-2

Diversification of cropping systems has the potential to increase biodiversity and support human health. The DCropS4OneHealth project pursues a OneHealth approach and aims to test the following hypotheses along a causal chain in the area of agrobiodiversity: (i) Diversification in cropping systems increases farm biodiversity in terms of soil and plant microbiome, vegetation and invertebrate fauna. (ii) The higher diversity of cultivated crops, soil and plant microbiome, vegetation and invertebrate fauna positively affects health-relevant characteristics of the field produce in terms of the produce microbiome and health-promoting plant secondary metabolites. (iii) These improved characteristics foster human health. Thus, relations between biodiversity and human health are mediated and can be analysed via the interlinked microbiomes and the plant secondary metabolites. The consortium brings together scientists from different disciplines and practitioners. A large-scale on-farm experiment will be estab- lished in a commercial farm to test the hypotheses. For the analyses, OMICS technologies will be used, plants and invertebrates will be recorded, and methods of chemo- and bioinformatics and artificial intel- ligence will be applied. In exchange with relevant stakeholders, recommendations for favourable diver- sification measures and for unlocking the benefits for biodiversity and human health will be derived and options for their implementation will be identified.

PIK will be responsible for the work package diet and human health (WP9) (Figure 1, 3). The Climate Change and Health (CCH) working group at PIK has a key interest in investigating the potential of di- versified agricultural systems to foster human health and nutrition and as an adaptation strategy to en- vironmental change. The working group focuses on evaluating win-win solutions which improve human health while increasing the responsible stewardship of the global commons. Dr. Amanda Wendt is working group leader of the CCH group and has extensive experience in the evaluation of complex nutrition and agricultural interventions, in particular analysis of dietary patterns, micronutrient consump- tion and health outcomes. In addition, she has conducted and supervised several systematic reviews focused on nutrition and health. Dr. Anna Müller-Hauser has experience in the evaluation of nutrition and agricultural interventions on human health, in particular she studied their effects on intestinal health and, in collaboration with Georg Zeller at EMBL, microbiota composition.