Aletta Bonn

Aletta Bonn
Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ / German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig / Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany · Ecosystem Services

Professor of Ecosystem Services
Interested in people-biodiversity linkages

About

289
Publications
229,552
Reads
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13,500
Citations
Introduction
I work at the science-policy interface with particular interest in biodiversity change and ecosystem services, biodiversity and health, participatory conservation and citizen science.
Additional affiliations
November 2000 - January 2012
The University of Sheffield
Position
  • PostDoc Position
May 2014 - April 2020
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research
Position
  • Professor
April 1996 - July 2000
Technische Universität Braunschweig
Position
  • postgraduate
Education
October 1993 - March 1996
September 1992 - August 1993
Bangor University
Field of study
  • Marine Environmental Protection
April 1989 - August 1992
Freie Universität Berlin
Field of study
  • Biology / English

Publications

Publications (289)
Article
Full-text available
Context There are urgent calls to transition society to more sustainable trajectories, at scales ranging from local to global. Landscape sustainability (LS), or the capacity for landscapes to provide equitable access to ecosystem services essential for human wellbeing for both current and future generations, provides an operational approach to moni...
Preprint
Full-text available
Biodiversity can foster mental well-being. Little is known, however, about mental well-being effects of acoustic diversity, and how natural soundscapes contribute to a sense of place. To test this, we conducted an experimental study with 195 German residents who listened to two forest soundscapes with low or high vocalising animal richness (actual...
Article
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Despite the multifaceted and diverse challenges that refugees, migrants, and asylum-seekers experience when entering a new country, they remain notably underrepresented in the evaluation and understanding of the health and wellbeing impacts of outdoor health interventions. We addressed this knowledge gap by a mixed-methods evaluation (questionnaire...
Article
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Citizen science has great potential to foster ecological knowledge, skills and collective action for biodiversity conservation. To date, however, there are few experimental studies of behaviour change outcomes induced by citizen science. We assessed the effects of citizen science in ecological stream monitoring on participants' individual and colle...
Preprint
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To address the biodiversity crisis, global and regional policy frameworks like the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the European Green Deal demand to monitor biodiversity. Despite these efforts, existing approaches for monitoring biodiversity remain fragmented and lack data integration. Here, we review and synthesize crucial infor...
Article
In the present article, we outline 10 essential functions of national biodiversity data infrastructures. They serve as key providers, facilitators, mediators, and platforms for effective biodiversity data management, integration, and analysis that require national efforts to foster biodiversity science, policy, and practice.
Preprint
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Many insect species are facing existential crises, primarily due to diverse human-induced activities. Most insect assessments, however, are based on short-term data or some iconic species. Here, in close collaboration with taxonomic experts from natural history societies, we compiled the best available occurrence data for ground beetles in Germany,...
Preprint
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Biodiversity monitoring programs and citizen science data remain heavily biased towards the Global North. Incorporating social media data can complement existing gaps, especially in megadiverse countries with limited records, but whether such data can significantly improve our understanding of range-shifting species is unknown. Here, we collated lo...
Article
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Municipal authorities around the world have come to recognize the importance of making conservation and restoration a priority. Multiple urban restoration programs now foster insects and other pollinators through planting and sowing flowering plants, many of them within residential areas. But residents are not only walking next to pollinators visit...
Article
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Engagement in biodiversity citizen science initiatives can confer health and wellbeing benefits to individuals and communities. Yet, few biodiversity citizen science initiatives are explicitly planned to optimize health and wellbeing as a potential co-benefit, leading to missed opportunities for biodiversity conservation and human health. In this p...
Article
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Context Landscape change affects biological diversity and the distribution of species traits related to spiritual, educational, and recreational benefits people derive from nature. These traits are associated with color, song and behavioral characteristics that influence people's perceptions of how attractive an assemblage is. However, the environm...
Preprint
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Abstract The scarcity of long-term observational data has limited the use of statistical or machine-learning techniques for predicting intraannual ecological variation. However, time-stamped citizen-science observation records, supported by media data such as photographs, are increasingly available. In the present article, we present a novel frame...
Article
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To achieve the goals of the 2030 Global Biodiversity Framework, the European Biodiversity Strategy, and the EU Green Deal, biodiversity monitoring is critical. Monitoring efforts in Europe, however, suffer from gaps and biases in taxonomy, spatial coverage, and temporal resolution, resulting in fragmented and disconnected data. To assess user and p...
Preprint
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Forest risks and benefits to human health are widely recognised. Yet, variation across forest types and their ecological characteristics driving health effects remain underexplored. Based on empirical data from an interdisciplinary European forest network, we developed a Bayesian Belief Network to quantify seven causal pathways relating different f...
Article
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Grazing of both domestic and wild large herbivores can contribute to multiple ecosystem services. However, grazing systems strongly differ in the intensity of management and outcomes, and we define sustainable grazing as grazing which benefits multiple environmental ecosystem services. Previous studies have found that, in general, grazing systems w...
Article
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Background: Evidence on the health benefits of spending time in nature has highlighted the importance of pro vision of blue and green spaces where people live. The potential for health benefits offered by nature exposure, however, extends beyond health promotion to health treatment. Social prescribing links people with health or social care needs...
Preprint
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Observations are key to understanding the state of nature, the drivers of biodiversity loss and the impacts on ecosystem services and ultimately on people. Many EU policies and initiatives call for unbiased, integrated and regularly updated data on biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, biodiversity monitoring efforts are spatially and tempo...
Article
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Protected areas not only provide biodiversity conservation but also offer a multitude of nature’s contributions to people (NCP), such as recreational opportunities. Visitors to these areas value nature and NCP for various reasons, potentially leading to different arguments for conservation planning. So far, research has neglected the heterogeneity...
Article
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Emerging technologies are increasingly employed in environmental citizen science projects. This integration offers benefits and opportunities for scientists and participants alike. Citizen science can support large-scale, long-term monitoring of species occurrences, behaviour and interactions. At the same time, technologies can foster participant e...
Method
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EuropaBON EBV workflow templates The information provided here represents the EBV workflow templates collected during the EuropaBON online workshop on Essential Biodiversity Variable (EBV) workflows from 22–24 February 2023. The templates were designed to capture comprehensive descriptions about the three workflow components (data collection and s...
Technical Report
Full-text available
The information represents the EBV workflow templates collected during the EuropaBON online workshop on Essential Biodiversity Variable (EBV) workflows from 22–24 February 2023. The templates were designed to capture comprehensive descriptions about the three workflow components (data collection and sampling, data integration, and modelling) that...
Preprint
Full-text available
1. Biodiversity is crucial for human health and well-being. Perceived biodiversity - people’s subjective experience of biodiversity - seems to be particularly relevant for mental well-being. 2. Using photographs and audio recordings of forests that varied in levels of species richness, we conducted two sorting studies to assess how people perceive...
Article
Full-text available
The expanding use of community science platforms has led to an exponential increase in biodiversity data in global repositories. Yet, understanding of species distributions remains patchy. Biodiversity data from social media can potentially reduce the global biodiversity knowledge gap. However, practical guidelines and standardized methods for harv...
Technical Report
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"There are no scientifically justified obstacles to protecting biodiversity in all its beauty and diversity. There are only six years left to achieve the biodiversity targets by 2030. We must work together now to get there in time." In the 10 Must Knows from Biodiversity Science 2024, 64 scientists have further developed their well-founded and div...
Article
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Anthropogenic land cover change is a major driver of biodiversity loss, with urbanisation and farmland practices responsible for some of the most drastic modifications of natural habitats. The relative importance of different land covers for shaping insect communities, however, is unclear. This study examines the effect of urban and farmland covers...
Article
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Nature's contributions to people (NCP) are essential for the production and trade of agricultural, forestry and fishery commodities. Often, there is a spatial disconnect between consumers and the natural systems where the commodities are produced. Traded agricultural products are therefore dependent on nature and NCP in their region of origin. The...
Article
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Whereas temporal variability of plant phenology in response to climate change has already been well studied, the spatial variability of phenology is not well understood. Given that phenological shifts may affect biotic interactions, there is a need to investigate how the variability in environmental factors relates to the spatial variability in her...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: Evidence on the health benefits of spending time in nature has highlighted the importance of provision of blue and green spaces in peoples living environments. The potential for health benefits offered by nature exposure, however, extends beyond health promotion to health treatment. Social prescribing links people with health or social...
Article
Full-text available
Forests can foster mental health and well‐being. Yet, the contribution of forest biodiversity remains unclear, and experimental research is needed to unravel pathways of biodiversity–health linkages. Here, we assess the role of tree species richness, both actual and perceived, and how stress reduction and attention restoration can serve as potentia...
Article
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As global warming and urbanisation intensify unabated, a growing share of the human population is exposed to dangerous heat levels. Trees and forests can effectively mitigate such heat alongside numerous health co-benefits like improved mental wellbeing. Yet, which forest types are objectively and subjectively coolest to humans, and how thermal and...
Preprint
Full-text available
Whereas temporal variability of plant phenology in response to climate change has already been well studied, the spatial variability of phenology is not well understood. Given that phenological shifts may affect the magnitude of biotic interactions, there is a need to investigate how the variability in environmental factors relates to the spatial v...
Preprint
Full-text available
Agricultural pesticides, nutrients, and habitat degradation are major causes of insect declines in lowland streams. To effectively conserve and restore stream habitats, standardized stream monitoring data and societal support for freshwater protection are needed. Here, we sampled 137 small stream sites across Germany, 83% of which were located in a...
Article
Full-text available
Citizen science plays a crucial role in helping monitor biodiversity and inform conservation. With the widespread use of smartphones, many people share biodiversity information on social media, but this information is still not widely used in conservation. Focusing on Bangladesh, a tropical megadiverse and mega‐populated country, we examined the im...
Article
Conservation science often addresses highly complex issues; creative approaches can help develop new ways of doing so. We describe constraint-based brainstorming, a 10-minute creativity-inducing exercise inspired by design thinking. Although we applied the method with the goal of developing creative environmental valuation methods, it is applicable...
Preprint
Full-text available
1. The expanding use of citizen science platforms has led to an exponential increase in biodiversity data in global repositories. Yet, our understanding of species distribution remains patchy for most of the world. Social media data has the potential to reduce the global biodiversity knowledge gap. However, practical guidelines and standardised pip...
Article
Full-text available
Context A key global challenge is to meet both the growing demand for food and feed while maintaining biodiversity’s supporting functions. Protected grasslands, such as Natura 2000 sites in Europe, may play an important role in harmonising productivity and biodiversity goals. This work contributes to an understanding of the relationship between for...
Preprint
Full-text available
To implement the goals of the 2030 Global Biodiversity Framework, the European Biodiversity Strategy and the EU Green Deal, biodiversity monitoring is a pivotal instrument to achieve accountability and progress in conservation. Monitoring efforts in Europe, however, suffer from gaps and biases in taxonomy, spatial coverage, and temporal resolution,...
Article
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The supply of ecosystem services (ES) is commonly assumed to be linked to human wellbeing within socio-ecological systems. However, these linkages are seldom assessed using quantitative approaches at large scales and low spatial resolution. Here, we investigated the complex bidirectional linkages between ES supply and material wellbeing (income) us...
Research
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This paper discusses barriers and presents recommendations for the effective restoration of riverine and coastal wetlands in Europe, highlighting the importance of integrating initiatives across science, policy and practice.
Article
German article: Citizen science, the active participation of interested members of the public in research projects by both experts and newcomers, is becoming increasingly important for biodiversity monitoring and conservation. This development is promoted by the transformative effects of citizen science in the fields of science, education and parti...
Article
Full-text available
1. Nature's contributions to people (NCP) rarely originate from nature alone. Often, only by joining natural capital with forms of anthropogenic capital, NCP emerge benefitting people. Understanding how NCP are co-produced by natural and anthropogenic capitals is needed to inform decision-making on sustainable land-use practices. 2. Through a syste...
Preprint
Full-text available
Citizen science plays a crucial role in helping monitor biodiversity and inform conservation. With the widespread use of smartphones, many people share biodiversity information on social media, but this information is still not widely used in conservation. Here, focussing on Bangladesh - a tropical mega-diverse and mega-populated country, we examin...
Technical Report
Full-text available
Increasing the policy impact and effectiveness of biodiversity monitoring in Europe: current state and gaps.
Preprint
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In order to assess user and policy needs related to biodiversity monitoring and data, the EuropaBON project invited national experts to fill in this survey in August 2021. The survey was tailored to the national level and aimed at identifying current monitoring efforts, data flows from collection to reporting, data uptake by policymaking, challenge...
Preprint
Full-text available
In order to assess user and policy needs related to biodiversity monitoring and data, the EuropaBON project invited European experts to fill in this survey in August 2021. The survey was tailored to the European level and aimed at identifying current monitoring efforts, data flows from collection to reporting, data uptake by policymaking, challenge...
Article
Full-text available
Citizen science (CS) can foster transformative impact for science, citizen empowerment and socio-political processes. To unleash this impact, a clearer understanding of its current status and challenges for its development is needed. Using quantitative indicators developed in a collaborative stakeholder process, our study provides a comprehensive o...
Article
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Effects on banks construction measures on the Carabidae fauna of a river. Effects of groin restoration and rock filling using the example of the river Elbe.
Article
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Long-term analyses of biodiversity data highlight a ‘biodiversity conservation paradox’: biological communities show substantial species turnover over the past century1,2, but changes in species richness are marginal1,3–5. Most studies, however, have focused only on the incidence of species, and have not considered changes in local abundance. Here...
Article
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The majority of central European streams are in poor ecological condition. Pesticide inputs from terrestrial habitats present a key threat to sensitive insects in streams. Both standardized stream monitoring data and societal support are needed to conserve and restore freshwater habitats. Citizen science (CS) offers potential to complement internat...
Article
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Winners and losers over 35 years of dragonfly and damselfly distributional change in Germany-Recent studies suggest insect declines in parts of Europe; however, the generality of these trends across different taxa and regions remains unclear. Standardized data are not available to assess large-scale, long-term changes for most insect groups but opp...
Article
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Protected area (PA) performance is thought to depend on effective conservation management and favourable socio-economic context. However, increasing evidence of continued biodiversity decline within PAs raises the question of whether fundamental ecological and socio-economic constraints might actually affect PA effectiveness. Here we quantify how t...
Article
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Phenology has emerged as key indicator of the biological impacts of climate change, yet the role of functional traits constraining variation in herbaceous species’ phenology has received little attention. Botanical gardens are ideal places in which to investigate large numbers of species growing under common climate conditions. We ask whether inter...
Article
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Insects are the most diverse group of animals on Earth, but their small size and high diversity have always made them challenging to study. Recent technological advances have the potential to revolutionise insect ecology and monitoring. We describe the state of the art of four technologies (computer vision, acoustic monitoring, radar, and molecular...
Article
Full-text available
Citizen scientists play an increasingly important role in biodiversity monitoring. Most of the data, however, are unstructured—collected by diverse methods that are not documented with the data. Insufficient understanding of the data collection processes presents a major barrier to the use of citizen science data in biodiversity research. We develo...
Article
Full-text available
Large‐scale biodiversity databases have great potential for quantifying long‐term trends of species, but they also bring many methodological challenges. Spatial bias of species occurrence records is well recognized. Yet, the dynamic nature of this spatial bias – how spatial bias has changed over time – has been largely overlooked. We examined the s...
Article
Full-text available
Reconciling conservation and socioeconomic development goals is key to sustainability but remains a source of fierce debate. Protected areas (PAs) are believed to play an essential role in achieving these seemingly conflicting goals. Yet, there is limited evidence as to whether PAs are actually achieving the two goals simultaneously. Here, we inves...
Article
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Aim In this study, we assessed the importance of local‐ to landscape‐scale effects of land cover and land use on flying insect biomass. Location Denmark and parts of Germany. Methods We used rooftop‐mounted car nets in a citizen science project (“InsectMobile”) to allow for large‐scale geographic sampling of flying insects. Volunteers sampled ins...
Preprint
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In this report, we present the analysis of the different available biodiversity data streams at the EU and national level, both baseline biodiversity data and monitoring data. We assess how these biodiversity data inform and trigger policy action and identify the related challenges the different European countries and relevant EU agencies face and...
Technical Report
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"10 Must Knows from Biodiversity Science”, ranging from climate stress for forests to the corona virus that has jumped from animals to humans, are now published for the first time. More than 45 experts from the German Leibniz Research Network Biodiversity and colleagues have compiled this inventory on the preservation of nature as the basis of huma...
Technical Report
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Uns Autorinnen und Autoren geht es darum Wissen zu vermitteln. Wissen um Wandel, um politisches und gesellschaftliches Handeln für einen gesunden Planeten, den Erhalt und die nachhaltige Nutzung der Biodiversität zu unterstützen. Wissenschaft und Forschung zur Begleitung eines komplexen und systemaren Prozess wird angeboten. For us as contributors...
Article
The potential supply of ecosystem services is often assessed using land cover data. Assessment of actual use of ecosystem services by beneficiaries remains less covered and is often assumed to be congruent with potential supply. However, we believe that to contribute to the sustainable management of multifunctional landscapes, more insights are nee...
Preprint
Full-text available
Observations are key to understand the drivers of biodiversity loss, and the impacts on ecosystem services and ultimately on people. Many EU policies and initiatives demand unbiased, integrated and regularly updated biodiversity and ecosystem service data. However, efforts to monitor biodiversity are spatially and temporally fragmented, taxonomical...
Article
Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are key instruments to foster environmental conservation and, arguably, social development goals. PES are, however, commonly designed based on a single environmental objective (e.g., conservation of native forest areas), and expected to simultaneously fulfil social goals which are rarely evaluated. Thus, to mee...
Article
Social–ecological networks (SENs) represent the complex relationships between ecological and social systems and are a useful tool for analyzing and managing ecosystem services. However, mainstreaming the application of SENs in ecosystem service research has been hindered by a lack of clarity about how to match research questions to ecosystem servic...