In microbiome science, diversity is a measure of the variety of microorganisms within an environment. Diversity takes into account both the number of different microbial groups and how many microbes are in each of those groups.

Just like biodiversity in an ecosystem, diversity in our microbiome is generally a good sign. Unfortunately, there’s a mass extinction of microbes happening right inside our bodies, contributing to a surge of diseases that didn’t once exist—autoimmune, allergies, autism, asthma, diabetes, obesity, and more. In evaluating this rise of modern illnesses, scientists have studied communities all around the world who still observe a hunter-gatherer style of living. They’ve found that these communities have very similar microbiomes to one another, yet completely different from ours in the West, with guts containing up to 50% more bacterial species and twice as many bacterial genes.

While this research is extremely interesting, we must remember that in looking at the health of our ecosystem, diversity is only one factor to consider. While it is generally considered a marker of health, we must also look to the stability, structure, and function of our microbiomes.