Forest floor, sod, and gardening facilities in daycare environment modulate skin and gut microbiota and immunoregulation.

Immune‐mediated diseases have increased during the last decades in urban environments. The hygiene hypothesis suggests that increased hygiene level and reduced contacts with natural biodiversity are related to the increase in immune‐mediated diseases. We tested whether short‐time contact with microbiologically diverse nature‐based materials immediately change bacterial diversity on human skin. We tested direct skin contact, as two volunteers rubbed their hands with sixteen soil and plant based materials, and an exposure via fabric packets filled with moss material. Skin swabs were taken before and after both exposures. Next‐generation sequencing showed that exposures increased, at least temporarily, the total diversity of skin microbiota and the diversity of Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria and Alpha‐, Beta‐ and Gammaproteobacteria suggesting that contact with nature‐based materials modify skin microbiome and increase skin microbial diversity. Until now, approaches to cure or prevent immune system disorders using microbe‐based treatments have been limited to use of a few microbial species. We propose that nature‐based materials with high natural diversity, such as the materials tested here, might be more effective in modifying human skin microbiome, and eventually, in reducing immune system disorders. Future studies should investigate how long‐term changes in skin microbiota are achieved and if the exposure induces beneficial changes in the immune system markers.

Following the growth of nature-based tourism, national parks and other protected areas have become important tourist attractions and tools for regional development. Meanwhile, research on the impact of nature on human health and well-being is increasing and taken into account in park management. This study examines health and well-being benefits perceived by visitors to Finland's protected areas. It is based on survey data from five national parks and one strict nature reserve in 2013–2015: an on-site visitor survey (N = 3152) and an Internet-based health and well-being survey (N = 1054). The study indicates that visitors’ perceived benefits to their well-being were highly positive. Visits to protected areas promoted psychological, physical, and social benefits. In particular, park visits were found to provide strong and multi-faceted, long-lasting, embodied and sensory well-being experiences as well as escape from everyday life and work. Overnight visitors reported more well-being benefits than day visitors, and different types of park had different well-being benefits. The study suggests that the potential benefits of protected areas for public health are significant, emphasizing the need to integrate health and well-being arguments into the neoliberalist politics assessing the economic benefits of protected areas and their role in regional development.

Nature contacts are recognized as positively contributing to humans’ health and well-being. Although there have been projects to green daycare or schoolyards, yard greening and microbial biodiversity have never been studied simultaneously. We asked whether simultaneously increasing biodiversity exposure and greening urban daycare yards affects 3–5 years-old children’s physical activity and play, their environmental relationships, and their perceived well-being. For transforming six daycare yards in Finland, we used a forest floor with high biodiversity, sod, peat blocks, and planters for vegetable and flower growing. We used qualitative interview and survey-based data collected from the daycare personnel and parents to analyze how green yards encourage children’s engagement with their everyday life-worlds. We identified the functional possibilities provided by the yards and the dynamic aspects related to the greening. Green, biodiverse yards were considered safe, and inspired children’s play, diversified their activities, and increased physical activity. The greenery offered embodied experiences of nature and provided the children with multi-sensory exploration and diverse learning situations. The dynamic and emotional ways of engaging with the natural environment increased their well-being. The activities related to caring for the yards and exploring them promoted the development of environmental relationships. The results can be used for designing health-enhancing yards

Contact with nature is increasingly being recognized as contributing to humans’ mental and physical health. This study explores how Finnish children, young people and families engage with nature during outdoor recreation. We apply a relational approach with the concept of affordance to understand better how engagement with nature affects their well-being. The study is based on thematic writings of 15- to 21-year-olds and on an ethnographic study of camping. Findings indicate that engagement with nature enables young people to calm down and to get away from the pressures of everyday life and affords close interaction for families. The relational approach makes visible that the more young people and families spend time in nature, the more they are able to perceive affordances that enhance their well-being. In future research and policy, the focus should be on how to support families’ engagement with nature by securing time and places for encountering nature.