Craig Liddicoat
Craig Liddicoat is a PhD student in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Adelaide. Craig's main research interest is in emerging environmental drivers of human health. In particular, the role that exposure to (and loss of) biodiversity in landscapes, vegetation and soils may play in developing immune fitness and predisposition to both infectious and non-infectious diseases.
As part of a larger team, my research is exploring connections between environments, their microbial communities (microbiota), human exposures, interactions with human microbiota and immune status, and ultimately health outcomes. The notion of a real biological (microbiota-mediated) connection between humans and their environments, and potential benefits for immune training and regulation from exposure to biodiversity (and associated microbial diversity), has originated from immunologists and medical researchers. However, this represents a large multidisciplinary field of research. My research has objectives to:
- help bridge the gap between environmental science, ecology and human health.
- investigate if there is support for possible health benefits from exposure to biodiversity in large existing environmental and public health datasets.
- build knowledge of biological (microbiota-based) connections between environments and exposed populations.
- help inform new cost-effective nature-based public health interventions.
Appointments
| Date | Position | Institution name |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Senior NRM Scientist (Soil & Land) [Part-time] | Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources (SA) |
| 2011 - 2017 | Senior Natural Resource Management Scientist (Soil & Land) | Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources (SA) |
| 2002 - 2011 | Environmental Consultant | Rural Solutions SA |
Education
| Date | Institution name | Country | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 - 2001 | Flinders University, Adelaide | Australia | Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science (ecology major) |
| 1990 - 1993 | University of Adelaide, Adelaide | Australia | Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical, 1st class hons.) |
Certifications
| Date | Title | Institution name | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Certificate IV in Project Management | MBH Management Pty Ltd (RTO ID: 90884) | — |
Research Interests
Journals
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2018 | Liddicoat, C., Bi, P., Waycott, M., Glover, J., Breed, M., & Weinstein, P. (2018). Ambient soil cation exchange capacity inversely associates with infectious and parasitic disease risk in regional Australia. Science of the Total Environment, 626, 117-125. DOI |
| 2018 | Liddicoat, C., Bi, P., Waycott, M., Glover, J., Lowe, A., & Weinstein, P. (2018). Landscape biodiversity correlates with respiratory health in Australia. Journal of Environmental Management, 206, 113. DOI Scopus2 WoS4 Europe PMC3 |
| 2016 | Liddicoat, C., Waycott, M., & Weinstein, P. (2016). Environmental change and human health: Can environmental proxies inform the biodiversity hypothesis for protective microbial-human contact?. BioScience, 66(12), 1023-1034. DOI Scopus7 WoS6 |
| 2015 | Liddicoat, C., Maschmedt, D., Clifford, D., Searle, R., Herrmann, T., Macdonald, L., & Baldock, J. (2015). Predictive mapping of soil organic carbon stocks in South Australia's agricultural zone. Soil Research, 53(8), 956-973. DOI Scopus8 WoS7 |
| 2015 | Odgers, N., Holmes, K., Griffin, T., & Liddicoat, C. (2015). Derivation of soil-attribute estimations from legacy soil maps. Soil Research, 53(8), 881-894. DOI Scopus6 |
Conference Papers
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2014 | Liddicoat, C., Maschmedt, D., Kidd, D., & Searle, R. (2014). Modelling soil carbon stocks using legacy site data, in the mid north region of South Australia. In GlobalSoilMap: Basis of the Global Spatial Soil Information System - Proceedings of the 1st GlobalSoilMap Conference (pp. 253-259). Scopus1 |