The Human Ecosystem
- Details
- Created: Tuesday, 01 November 2011 00:00
- Written by Nadia O’Carroll
We share the planet and our own bodies with an unseen multitude of microscopic organisms.
Plants and animals are in many respects huge ecosystems of diverse microscopic organisms, rather than individuals of one species. This microbiota includes yeast, fungi, bacteria, viruses and protists. In humans the microbiota may compose 1 kg to 2.25 kg of a person’s body weight. The number of human cells in a person’s body are greatly outnumbered (over 10 times) by the alien cells of microbiotic organisms which form vast resident colonies on the surface of internal and external tissue. It is also estimated that between 100 and 200 human genes are actually under the control of resident bacteria.