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One size does not fit all: The complex relationship between biodiversity and psychological well-being
... Knowledge of bird species has also not been related to selfreported well-being in Chilean parks 34 . Hence, for experiencing nature, biodiversity and its benefits for mental well-being, accurate species knowledge is possibly not of high importance 35 . We aim to deepen the understanding of the effects of actual and perceived biodiversity of vegetation and animals (namely birds) on the mental wellbeing of visitors of recreational areas. ...
... • Two different actual biodiversity measures (bird diversity 26,29,35,63 and vegetational biotope types 35,64 ), • different landscape characteristics 65-67 , • experience/perception of biodiversity and naturalness on-site 29,68 , and finally, we compare these to the • perception of biodiversity/naturalness by pictures 48 . ...
... • Two different actual biodiversity measures (bird diversity 26,29,35,63 and vegetational biotope types 35,64 ), • different landscape characteristics 65-67 , • experience/perception of biodiversity and naturalness on-site 29,68 , and finally, we compare these to the • perception of biodiversity/naturalness by pictures 48 . ...
Being outdoors benefits both humans’ physical and mental well-being, but the reasons for this connection are difficult to pinpoint. This study examines 40 recreational areas to understand their individual characteristics’ impact on mental well-being. We interviewed 1184 visitors on their perception of the place and feeling of mental well-being. In a second survey, 49 participants were shown images of the areas to assess whether they perceived them in the same way as people on-site did. Biologists then evaluated the areas through bird and biotope surveys, also assessing various other landscape characteristics of the study areas. Analysis using a two-level multivariate GLM revealed that perceived naturalness and perceived bird diversity are significant predictors of improved mental well-being. On the flip side, mental well-being declines with increased human impact, as indicated by the amount of infrastructure and the Human Footprint Index value. Notably, perceived naturalness positively correlates with actual bird diversity (p = 0.005) and negatively with human impact (p = 0.006). A strong perception of birds enhances the mental well-being of greenspace visitors (p < 0.001), while a high birding specialization negatively affects recalled restoration (p = 0.014). The estimated restoration value (p = 0.001) and estimated beauty (p < 0.001) from the online survey correlate positively with emotions experienced on-site. The perception of naturalness in images aligns with on-site perception, suggesting pathways for future research and the design of recreational areas.
... Third, and also with significant practical implications, personalized ecologies are associated with human attitudes and behaviour towards nature (e.g., Alcock et al., 2020;Gaston et al., 2023;Pr evot et al., 2018;Richardson et al., 2020;Soga & Gaston, 2023a; personalized ecologies, because they are personal, may help thwart the 'compassion fade' that can hamper responses to large scale crises (Markowitz et al., 2013). The precise role that biodiversity per se (rather than nature more generally) plays in any of these impacts is not well understood, although there is growing evidence that it can be important (Aerts et al., 2018;Buxton et al., 2023;Cox et al., 2017;Dallimer et al., 2012;Fuller et al., 2007;Methorst et al., 2021;Randler et al., 2023;Shwartz et al., 2023;Wood et al., 2018). Regardless, it might be argued that in directly or indirectly capturing much about people's relations with the natural world, personalized ecologies are critical to the future of nature and biodiversity . ...
... Another component of capability that has attracted research attention is the ability of people to identify different kinds of animals (and plants). In general, people's identification abilities have been found to be highly variable but on average quite poor, especially in wealthier countries (e.g., Austen et al., 2016;Bashan et al., 2021;Dallimer et al., 2012;H€ artel et al., 2023;Pilgrim et al., 2008;Prokop & Rodak, 2009;Robinson et al., 2016;Shwartz et al., 2023;Vaughn et al., 2022), although very much better for those for whom such skills are more important (e.g., Gorleri et al., 2023;Scott & Hallam, 2002). There are some significant qualifiers. ...
... Connection to nature has been found to be linked to many things, including socioeconomics (Kleespies & Dierkes, 2023;Mikusi nski et al., 2023), components of health and well-being (Capaldi et al., 2014;Nisbet et al., 2020), interest in, knowledge of, and positive conservation attitudes towards, nature (Lim et al., 2022;Mikołajczak et al., 2023;Neurohr et al., 2023), and participation in nature-based activities (Pocock et al., 2023). Their connection to nature can influence the benefit that people experience from interactions with nature, with these benefits being more pronounced when the connection is stronger (Chang et al., 2020;Iwi nska et al., 2023;Oh et al., 2021;Rosa et al., 2018;Shwartz et al., 2023). It has also been shown that stronger connection to nature has a positive impact on pro-environment, and more specifically, pro-biodiversity behaviours, and hence may lead to increased protection and restoration of nature (Barragan-Jason et al., 2023Whitburn et al., 2020). ...
People have unique sets of direct sensory interactions with wild species, which change through their days, weeks, seasons, and lifetimes. Despite having important influences on their health and well‐being and their attitudes towards nature, these personalized ecologies remain surprisingly little studied and are poorly understood. However, much can be inferred about personalized ecologies by considering them from first principles (largely macroecological), alongside insights from research into the design and effectiveness of biodiversity monitoring programmes, knowledge of how animals respond to people, and studies of human biology and demography. Here I first review how three major sets of drivers, opportunity, capability and motivation, shape people's personalized ecologies. Second, I then explore the implications of these mechanisms for how more passively and more actively practical improvements can be made in people's personalized ecologies. Particularly in light of the declines in the richness of these ecologies that are being experienced in much of the world (the so‐called ‘extinction of experience’), and the significant consequences, marked improvement in many people's interactions and experiences with nature may be key to the future of biodiversity.
... The feedback loops between biodiversity and ecological restoration, for example, via wildlifefriendly gardening and psychological restoration are also largely unclear and nonlinear (Garfinkel et al., 2024). Research in urban gardens in Israel found that individual characteristics, such as affinity to nature, influence the relationship between psychological well-being and biodiversity present within the garden (Shwartz et al., 2023). Thus, there is no 'one-size-fits-all' when it comes to making recommendations around biodiversity-based interventions in gardens (Shwartz et al., 2023) or how to 'turbo-boost' a recovery process through biodiversity-related nature experiences. ...
... Research in urban gardens in Israel found that individual characteristics, such as affinity to nature, influence the relationship between psychological well-being and biodiversity present within the garden (Shwartz et al., 2023). Thus, there is no 'one-size-fits-all' when it comes to making recommendations around biodiversity-based interventions in gardens (Shwartz et al., 2023) or how to 'turbo-boost' a recovery process through biodiversity-related nature experiences. It may largely depend on the person themselves and their characteristics. ...
Growing urbanisation impacts both human health and biodiversity. Urban environments are currently home to 55% of the world’s human population, and many cities are located within the world’s biodiversity ‘hotspots’. Thus, urban planning for current and future cities demands concepts and actions that foster co-benefits for both people and nature. From an ecological perspective, cities may want to restore urban ecosystems through, for example, adding biodiversity elements (native plant diversity, structural complexity) to improve depleted ecosystem functioning and enhance ecosystem resilience. From a psychological perspective, research shows that contact with natural environments can promote people’s psychological restoration and enhance psychological resilience. In this chapter, the parallels between ecosystem restoration and psychological restoration in urban environments are explored. The ecological and psychological perspectives are bridged through the concepts of restoration and resilience, with urban biodiversity as a fundamental link between the two that can offer win-wins for urban planning. Evidence from the literature and case studies on ecosystem restoration initiatives, biophilic design concepts, urban garden social-ecological research, and nature-based social prescriptions demonstrates how a co-benefit approach to planning and managing city environments can support biodiverse urban ecosystems that create opportunity for psychological restoration and human health.
... The protection of urban biodiversity helps to coordinate public health relations and enhance the well-being of urban residents by protecting their mental health [43,44]. For example, natural correlation can significantly regulate this process; that is, the higher the natural correlation of urban residents, the more positive happiness they can show [45,46]. In addition, rational urban planning and growth management are conducive to promoting urban biodiversity conservation and enhancing ecosystem services [47]. ...
Biodiversity is crucial for human well-being and economic prosperity, representing a significant factor in constructing a global community of life on Earth. This study focuses on 4453 articles indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection, employing the visualization analysis software Citespace 6.2.R7 for bibliometric analysis of research related to biodiversity and human well-being. The findings indicate the following: (1) there is a steady increase in publications on biodiversity and human well-being, covering 167 disciplinary fields, indicating a broad research scope; (2) the literature spans 168 countries and regions, with major contributions from the United States, England, Germany, Australia, and China; (3) COSTANZA R is the most cited author in this field, with Science being the most recognized journal; and (4) current research hot topics include ecosystem services, genetic diversity, marine protected areas, nature-based solutions (NbS), and green spaces, while climate change, urban green space management, and national park system development are identified as important emerging directions. This study, grounded in significant global literature, aims to enrich the breadth and depth of research on biodiversity and human well-being, offering feasibility references for constructing theoretical frameworks in biodiversity studies and providing theoretical guidance for promoting modern harmonious coexistence between humans and nature.
... Psychological factors also play a pivotal role. The "bystander effect," where individuals are less likely to take action when others are present, can reduce personal accountability and participation in community-led conservation efforts (Assaf, 2023;Johanson, 2011 andEylering, 2024). Additionally, the complexity of biodiversity issues often leads to cognitive overload, where the public feels overwhelmed by the scale of the problem and therefore disengaged ( de Jong, 2010;Bibiana, 2023). ...
This study investigates the application of smart solutions and behavioral nudges to enhance public involvement in biodiversity conservation across the European Union. Smart solutions, such as protected areas, national biodiversity strategies, and regulatory frameworks, are direct interventions that provide a strong policy foundation for conservation. In contrast, nudges, including public awareness campaigns, eco-labeling, and citizen science projects, subtly influence public behavior without mandating specific actions, fostering voluntary engagement. The descriptive and comparative analysis reveals that integrating both approaches leads to more effective conservation outcomes by combining regulatory strength with public participation. Countries that successfully implement a mix of smart solutions and nudges, such as Germany and the Netherlands, achieve higher levels of public engagement and better biodiversity outcomes. The research underscores the imperative for intersectoral cooperation, heightened public consciousness, and comprehensive oversight mechanisms to maximize conservation initiatives. The findings provide valuable insights for policymakers, conservationists, and community leaders seeking to enhance public involvement in biodiversity conservation and promote sustainable practices across Europe.
... Participants who focused more on greenery experienced these benefits, while those observing grey elements did not. This finding implies that a subtle shift in attention towards nature can substantially improve daily well-being in urban areas.Such insights are vital for urban planning, suggesting the creation of spaces that offer not just access to natural elements, but also promote engagement with nature, potentially influencing well-being and pro-conservation behaviours(Mackay & Schmitt, 2019;Shwartz et al., 2023). Understanding which natural elements confer these benefits is key to transforming cities into healthier habitats for humans and wildlife alike. ...
The urban lifestyle has a profound effect on mental health, contributing significantly to the challenges faced by people who reside in urban areas. Growing empirical evidence underscores the potential of nature to alleviate these mental health burdens. However, we still lack understanding of which specific natural elements provide these benefits.
Using eye‐tracking technology, we experimentally explored the relationships between intentional visual attention to natural (green) and human‐made (grey) elements in urban areas and their association with well‐being measures. Participants took a 45‐min outdoor walk that simulates a walk to and from work, in which we examined pre‐ and post‐measures of cognition, affect, anxiety and perceived restorativeness. Participants were prompted to direct their attention to green, grey or a mixture of both elements. By analysing participants' eye movements and patterns, we determined adherence to experimental conditions and related visual attention to natural elements.
The experimental groups instructed to direct their visual attention to green, grey or a mix of both infrastructures exhibited differences in negative and positive affect, anxiety and perceived restorativeness, but not in cognition after a walk in an urban environment.
The percentage of time spent viewing natural elements showed that people who focused more on green features reported a decrease in anxiety and higher perceived restorativeness. In contrast, those who spent more time viewing grey elements reported increased anxiety and lowered perceived restorativeness. The percentage of time viewing natural elements was not linked to affect or cognition. Viewing trees showed the strongest association with well‐being measures compared to other natural elements.
Together, our results indicate that a simple behaviour change (directing visual attention to elements of nature instead of grey elements) can produce mental health benefits in the form of reducing anxiety and perceived restoration for people in urban areas. Thus, efforts to integrate nature, especially trees, in urban areas and promote city dwellers to visually interact with it during their daily routine can improve mental issues associated with urban lifestyle.
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The world is currently grappling with several public health issues (like the increase in urbanization, chronic diseases and social isolation). Increased connection with nature has been identified as a possible solution to many of these concerns. This perspective paper draws on recent empirical evidence around the health and wellbeing benefits of nature. To highlight these benefits I will draw on insights from my own research focused on Indigenous people’s connection to land (known as Country in Australia) and gardening as a mechanism for engaging people in nature. This will be applied to support the notion that nature is critical infrastructure that has significant potential to improve public health outcomes. In doing this it must be acknowledged that these are only a few aspects of the relationship between nature and health based on my own expertise and paradigms developed from my research. I will conclude this perspective essay by providing five overarching recommendations to mainstream the evidence substantiating the health and wellbeing benefits of nature into policy and practice.
Urbanization and urban lifestyles increasingly disconnect people from nature in a process that was termed the ‘extinction of experience’. This loss of human–nature interactions can undermine both cognitive (ecological knowledge) and affective (emotional connection to nature) relations to nature, further impacting capabilities to experience, care for, benefit from and act to protect nature. Yet, the extent to which the urban life influences both cognitive and affective relations to nature, remains poorly understood and research is confined to a few countries and cultures.
We explored how cognitive and affective relations to nature can be related to people's childhood and current place of residency. We expected that urban dwellers, who have less opportunities to experience nature than their rural counterparts, will be less connected to nature and will demonstrate lower ecological knowledge than their rural counterparts.
We conducted four surveys in Israel, in urban and rural settings between 2015 and 2018 (N = 1706) to measure and compare (urban vs. rural) the following variables: (a) species identification skills (correctly identified); (b) familiarity (recognized), as two measures of cognitive relation with nature and (c) nature relatedness, as a measure of emotional connection to nature.
The ability to identify common plant, bird and butterfly species was poor in general (Av. = 3.83 out of 12), and lower for urban dwellers (Av. = 2.48) compared to their rural counterparts (Av. = 6.56). Differences in correct species identifications between urban and rural dwellers varied with taxa and peaked for butterflies (only 26 respondents managed to identify one species or more). We also identified an important gap between familiarity and species identification skills, especially for urban residents. Finally, people who currently live or used to live in rural areas during their childhood had higher scores of nature relatedness than their urban counterparts.
Our results highlight that decreased opportunity to interact with nature reduces cognitive and affective relations to nature. Such reductions can affect the overall preferences for human–nature relationships and exacerbate a pervasive negative cycle that modifies relational values such as, care for nature, sense of belonging, place and identity that influence both humans well‐being and environmental stewardship.
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Biodiversity is a cornerstone of human health and well-being. However, while evidence of the contributions of nature to human health is rapidly building, research into how biodiversity relates to human health remains limited in important respects. In particular, a better mechanistic understanding of the range of pathways through which biodiversity can influence human health is needed. These pathways relate to both psychological and social processes as well as biophysical processes. Building on evidence from across the natural, social and health sciences, we present a conceptual framework organizing the pathways linking biodiversity to human health. Four domains of pathways—both beneficial as well as harmful—link biodiversity with human health: (i) reducing harm (e.g. provision of medicines, decreasing exposure to air and noise pollution); (ii) restoring capacities (e.g. attention restoration, stress reduction); (iii) building capacities (e.g. promoting physical activity, transcendent experiences); and (iv) causing harm (e.g. dangerous wildlife, zoonotic diseases, allergens). We discuss how to test components of the biodiversity-health framework with available analytical approaches and existing datasets. In a world with accelerating declines in biodiversity, profound land-use change, and an increase in non-communicable and zoonotic diseases globally, greater understanding of these pathways can reinforce biodiversity conservation as a strategy for the promotion of health for both people and nature. We conclude by identifying research avenues and recommendations for policy and practice to foster biodiversity-focused public health actions.
Growing urbanisation is a threat to both mental health and biodiversity. Street trees are an important biodiversity component of urban greenspace, but little is known about their effects on mental health. Here, we analysed the association of street tree density and species richness with antidepressant prescribing for 9751 inhabitants of Leipzig, Germany. We examined spatial scale effects of street trees at different distances around participant’s homes, using Euclidean buffers of 100, 300, 500, and 1000 m. Employing generalised additive models, we found a lower rate of antidepressant prescriptions for people living within 100 m of higher density of street trees—although this relationship was marginally significant (p = 0.057) when confounding factors were considered. Density of street trees at further spatial distances, and species richness of street trees at any distance, were not associated with antidepressant prescriptions. However, for individuals with low socio-economic status, high density of street trees at 100 m around the home significantly reduced the probability of being prescribed antidepressants. The study suggests that unintentional daily contact to nature through street trees close to the home may reduce the risk of depression, especially for individuals in deprived groups. This has important implications for urban planning and nature-based health interventions in cities.
Spending time in nature is known to benefit human health and well-being, but evidence is mixed as to whether biodiversity or perceptions of biodiver- sity contribute to these benefits. Perhaps more importantly, little is known about the sensory modalities by which humans perceive biodiversity and obtain benefits from their interactions with nature. Here, we used a ‘phan- tom birdsong chorus’ consisting of hidden speakers to experimentally increase audible birdsong biodiversity during ‘on’ and ‘off’ (i.e. ambient conditions) blocks on two trails to study the role of audition in biodiversity perception and self-reported well-being among hikers. Hikers exposed to the phantom chorus reported higher levels of restorative effects compared to those that experienced ambient conditions on both trails; however, increased restorative effects were directly linked to the phantom chorus on one trail and indirectly linked to the phantom chorus on the other trail through perceptions of avian biodiversity. Our findings add to a growing body of evidence linking mental health to nature experiences and suggest that audi- tion is an important modality by which natural environments confer restorative effects. Finally, our results suggest that maintaining or improving natural soundscapes within protected areas may be an important component to maximizing human experiences.
The increasing alienation of people from nature is profoundly concerning because people's interactions with nature affect well‐being, affinity for nature, and support of biodiversity conservation. Efforts to restore or enhance people's interactions with nature are, therefore, important to ensure sustainable human and wildlife communities, but little is known about how this can be achieved. A key factor that shapes the way people interact with nature is their affinity for nature (often measured as nature relatedness [NR]). We explored how using cues to experience nature as a means to induce NR situationally can influence the quality of people's nature interactions on visits to green spaces and their positive affect after the visit. Cues to experience are cues that guide individuals on how to interact with nature. We surveyed 1023 visitors to a nature reserve to examine the relationships between trait (i.e., stable and long‐lasting) and state (i.e., temporary, brief) NR, the quality of nature interactions, and positive affect. We also conducted a controlled experiment in which 303 participants spent 30 min outdoors on campus and reported the quality of their nature interactions and positive affect. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 9 cues‐to‐experience experimental groups (e.g., smell flowers, observe wildlife, turn off your phone) that differed in the psychological distance from nature that they prompted. Participants who received cues of close psychological distance from nature (e.g., smell and touch natural elements) interacted 3 to 4 times more with nature and reported 0.2 more positive affect than other participants. Our results demonstrate that providing cues to experience nature, which bring people closer to nature and potentially induce state NR, can enhance the quality of people's nature interactions and their positive affect. These results highlight the role of NR in high‐quality nature interactions and suggest the use of cues to experience as a promising avenue for inducing state NR and promoting meaningful interactions with biodiversity, thus, reconciling conservation and well‐being objectives.
Urban land cover expansion and human population growth are accelerating worldwide. This is resulting in the loss and degradation of green and blue spaces (e.g. parks, waterways, lakes) in cities, which provide resources to sustain biodiversity and improve human wellbeing. The specific characteristics of these spaces (e.g. sounds, species, safety) that enhance or detract from wellbeing are underexplored, yet this knowledge is needed to inform urban planning, management and policies that will ultimately benefit both people and biodiversity. Research of this kind is rarely conducted in the Global South, where rapid urbanisation threatens biodiversity-rich ecosystems of worldwide significance. Here, we examine how perceptions of green, waterway, and dense urban spaces relate to wellbeing in Georgetown, Guyana. Specifically, we use mediation models to test how perceptions of sound, bird species richness, naturalness, and safety concerns contribute to sites being perceived as restorative which, subsequently, influences wellbeing. We assess the accuracy of these site perceptions with objective measures of sound (using a bioacoustic sound index), bird species richness, and percent coverage of vegetation, water, and impervious surfaces. Results showed that if sites were perceived as species rich, containing natural sounds like birdsong, natural rather than artificial, and safe, they were perceived as more restorative, resulting in improved wellbeing. In general, people's perceptions were consistent with objective measures. Green, compared with waterway and dense urban sites, contained more biophonic sounds, higher species richness, greater vegetation and water coverage. Although waterways were biodiverse, they were dominated by anthrophonic sounds, so were perceived as artificial and non-restorative. We shed light on how city planners might augment specific characteristics to improve the wellbeing of urban dwellers, with implications for biodiversity conservation. Our findings provide a scientific evidence base for urban design and management plans that could deliver multiple co-benefits, particularly in biodiversity-rich cities in neotropical regions.
It is widely believed that people living in cities have fewer and poorer daily experiences of nature, and that this contributes to the biodiversity crisis on the basis that if people do not know nature, they will not care for its conservation. In 1978, Pyle coined the term ‘extinction of experience’ to reflect the loss of opportunities to experience nature as urbanization progresses.
However, evidence of an emotional disconnect from nature arising from an extinction of experience remains poorly documented. Here we repeat a study conducted in 1996 comprising household surveys and bird surveys in a neighbourhood of Singapore, one of the world's most densely populated cities. We investigate empirically whether experiences of nature, opportunities to experience nature and the emotional connection between people and nature have changed across 22 years.
We discover that emotional connection with nature has actually increased among greenspace users and non‐users, while the frequency and duration of greenspace visits remained unchanged. Among greenspace users, the number of different nature elements experienced also remained unchanged and more frequent users demonstrated a stronger emotional connection with nature. We further found an increase in opportunities to experience local nature, as measured by bird species richness and abundance.
While we found no evidence for an extinction of experience or an emotional disconnect from nature in this particular setting and timeframe in urban Singapore, similar studies elsewhere are necessary to explore whether there may be geographical, cultural or temporal variations.
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Within a generation, children's lives have largely moved indoors, with the loss of free‐ranging exploration of the nearby natural world, even as research indicates that direct experiences of nature in childhood contribute to care for nature across the life span.
In response, many conservation organizations advocate connecting children with nature, and there has been rising interest in measuring young people's connectedness with nature, understanding how it relates to their well‐being and stewardship behaviour and creating programs to increase connection.
This article reviews the literature on these topics, covering both quantitative and qualitative studies. It notes that this research emphasizes positive experiences and emotions, even as global environmental changes and biodiversity loss accelerate.
Young people's emotions of worry, frustration and sadness as they learn about environmental degradation also express their understanding that they are connected to the biosphere. Therefore this review includes research on how young people cope with information about large‐scale environmental problems, and it identifies practices to sustain hope.
The review concludes by suggesting how research on connection with nature and coping with environmental change can benefit from integration.
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The effects of nature interactions on multiple aspects of human subjective wellbeing are increasingly well understood. Although nature experience has been shown to be positively associated with life satisfaction, it remains unknown whether the diversity of nature experiences contributes to increased life satisfaction and whether the relationship is mediated by a person’s strength of connection with nature. We conducted a national survey in Singapore through online questionnaires (n = 1, 262), where we measured frequency, duration, diversity of nature experiences, and presence or absence of nature views from windows at home and at the workplace. We also measured participants’ strength of connection with nature (how strongly a person identifies with nature). We found that people who visited more diverse types of natural spaces (ranging from wild nature, managed parks, and beaches) had higher life satisfaction. The presence of nature views from windows at the home and/or at the workplace was also linked with higher life satisfaction. We also found that people with a stronger connection with nature had higher life satisfaction when they spent more than one hour in natural spaces per week, while this relationship was weak for people without a strong connection with nature. Our results suggest that urban planning should aim to provide a diversity of natural spaces to increase life satisfaction.
Extinction of experience, the progressive loss of human–nature interactions, may prove to be one of the key environmental concepts of our times. Not only does this loss reduce the important benefits that people gain from these interactions, but it may also undermine their support for pro‐biodiversity policies and management actions, and thus play an important role in shaping the future of biodiversity.
Here, to help improve understanding, encourage a more consistent approach and highlight research gaps, we consider some of the key features of the concept of extinction of experience, contentions that these have caused and propose some solutions.
We focus particularly on the importance of (a) the definition of nature employed; (b) whether direct or other human–nature interactions are considered; (c) the differences between the loss and the extinction of experience; (d) the timing of the loss of interactions that is considered and (e) the difference between human–nature interactions and human–nature experiences.
Differentiating between narrow and broad senses of nature, between childhood and lifelong timings, and between interactions and experiences leads to a typology of eight different forms of extinction of experience. Such a classification can be useful for targeting research, furthering understanding of the processes and dynamics of the extinction of experience, and developing policies to reduce this phenomenon and minimize its negative consequences.
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Urban green space can help mitigate the negative impacts of urban living and provide positive effects on citizens’ mood, health and well-being. Questions remain, however, as to whether all types of green space are equally beneficial, and if not, what landscape forms or key features optimise the desired benefits. For example, it has been cited that urban landscapes rich in wildlife (high biodiversity) may promote more positive emotions and enhance well-being. This research utilised a mobile phone App, employed to assess people’s emotions when they entered any one of 945 green spaces within the city of Sheffield, UK. Emotional responses were correlated to key traits of the individual green spaces, including levels of biodiversity the participant perceived around them. For a subsample of these green spaces, actual levels of biodiversity were assessed through avian and habitat surveys. Results demonstrated strong correlations between levels of avian biodiversity within a green space and human emotional response to that space. Respondents reported being happier in sites with greater avian biodiversity (p < 0.01, r = 0.78) and a greater variety of habitats (p < 0.02, r = 0.72). Relationships were strengthened when emotions were linked to perceptions of overall biodiversity (p < 0.001, r = 0.89). So, when participants thought the site was wildlife rich, they reported more positive emotions, even when actual avian biodiversity levels were not necessarily enhanced. The data strengthens the arguments that nature enhances well-being through positive affect, and that increased ‘engagement with nature’ may help support human health within urban environments. The results have strong implications for city planning with respect to the design, management and use of city green spaces.
Urbanization deletes and degrades natural ecosystems, threatens biodiversity, and alienates people from the experience of nature. Nature-based solutions (NbS) that are inspired and supported by nature have the potential to deliver multifunctional environmental and social benefits to address these challenges in urban areas under context-specific conditions. NbS implementation often relies on a one-size-fits-all approach, although interventions that maximize one benefit (e.g., biodiversity conservation) may have no influence on, or even negatively affect, others (e.g., social justice). Furthermore, the current pathways from NbS to various benefits do not rely on a deep understanding of the underlying processes, prohibiting the identification of optimal solutions that maximize synergies across pathways. We present a comprehensive socio-ecological framework that addresses these issues by recognizing that cities are human-dominated environments that are foremost built and maintained to support humans. Our framework demonstrates how we can use experiments and niche species models to understand and predict where species will be and where people will be healthy and happy in a comparable manner. This knowledge can then be integrated into decision support tools that use optimization algorithms to understand trade-offs, identify synergies, and provide planners with the tools needed to tailor context-specific NbS to yield greener, more resilient cities with happier people and reduced inequality.
Little is known about the contribution that biodiversity has on mental health and well-being. To date, only one systematic review has investigated the health and well-being benefits from contact with biodiversity (Lovell et al. J Toxicol Environ Health B Crit Rev 17(1):1–20, 2014). The number of research studies investigating the health and well-being effects of biodiversity has increased since this publication. Here, we provide an update, focusing on the impact of biodiversity on mental health and well-being. Our objectives are to: (i) identify and describe the literature published after 2012; and (ii) synthesise all results from Lovell et al. (J Toxicol Environ Health B Crit Rev 17(1):1–20, 2014) and the more recently published literature to assess whether biodiversity influences mental health and well-being. Sixteen recently published studies met the inclusion criteria. The literature is varied with different study designs, measures of biodiversity, mental health and well-being. The synthesis of results was drawn from 24 studies: nine from Lovell et al. (J Toxicol Environ Health B Crit Rev 17(1):1–20, 2014) and 15 identified by this chapter. There is some evidence to suggest that biodiversity promotes better mental health and well-being. However, more studies reported non-significant results. The evidence is not yet of the extent necessary to characterise the role of biodiversity in relation to mental health or well-being. Future interdisciplinary research directions are discussed.
The perceptions of the general public regarding invasive alien species (IAS) are important in the prevention of future invasions and the success of management programmes. Here we use a novel visual method to investigate the perception of a charismatic IAS, the rose-ringed parakeet, across different stakeholders in Seville, Spain. Respondents were asked to select images of 10 bird species they would like to have present in their surroundings, out of 20 available images, including the parakeet and three other non-natives. This makes the survey easy, fast to take and attractive to potential participants, while prior and potentially biasing information of survey goals is minimised. Although more than 95% of the respondents recognised the parakeet, at least up to family level, only 34.8% selected it. Selection rates were even lower for three other IAS and even more so when the status of non-native species was indicated next to the images, suggesting that a social norm against IAS may be established. To validate our novel visual approach, we also assessed perception via a traditional questionnaire and the results of the two survey methods coincided. Finally parakeet selection differed importantly amongst pre-defined sectors of the public and people who had prior experience with the parakeet selected it less frequently (e.g. farmers, park managers). These results highlight the importance of studying different stakeholders to get the full picture when considering IAS management programmes. Our new visual survey method can thus serve as an excellent and user-friendly tool to study people's perceptions regarding charismatic IAS and facilitate well-informed and sensible decision-making.
Contemporary epidemiological methods testing the associations between green space and psychological well-being treat all vegetation cover as equal. However, there is very good reason to expect that variations in ecological "quality" (number of species, integrity of ecological processes) may influence the link between access to green space and benefits to human health and well-being. We test the relationship between green space quality and restorative benefit in an inner city urban population in Bradford, UK. We selected 12 urban parks for study where we carried out botanical and faunal surveys to quantify biodiversity and assessed the site facilities of the green space (cleanliness, provision of amenities). We also conducted 128 surveys with park users to quantify psychological restoration based on four self-reported measure of general restoration, attention-grabbing distractions, being away from everyday life, and site preference. We present three key results. First, there is a positive association between site facilities and biodiversity. Second, restorative benefit is predicted by biodiversity, which explained 43% of the variance in restorative benefit across the parks, with minimal input from other variables. Third, the benefits accrued through access to green space were unrelated to age, gender, and ethnic background. The results add to a small but growing body of evidence that emphasise the role of nature in contributing to the well-being of urban populations and, hence, the need to consider biodiversity in the design of landscapes that enhance multiple ecosystem services.
Natural sceneries or single plants may have positive influences on human health. Here we show that plant species richness can positively influence recovery from stress. Meadow-like arrays of different species richness (1, 16, 32, 64 species) were presented to visitors (n = 171) of a popular park in Zurich, Switzerland (one array per participant). Participants' systolic blood pressure was measured twice: directly after they had been stressed and once again after a 2min post-stress relaxation period during which they looked at one of either the meadow-like arrangements of plants in pots or at bare ground, shielded on three sides by a tent-like structure. The decrease in blood pressure was larger when respondents could view an arrangement of plants instead of ground without vegetation. Relaxation was strongest at intermediate species richness (32 species). Age, gender, and a person's attachment to nature did not influence relaxation. Our results indicate that species-rich vegetation may contribute to recovery from stress which should be considered in landscape management and planning.
Opportunities for people to interact with nature have declined over the past century, as many now live in urban areas and spend much of their time indoors. Conservation attitudes and behaviors largely depend on experiences with nature, and this "extinction of experience" (EOE) is a threat to biodiversity conservation. In this paper, we propose that citizen science, an increasingly popular way to integrate public outreach with data collection, can potentially mitigate EOE. Our review of the literature on volunteers' motivations and/or outcomes indicates that nature-based citizen science (NBCS) fosters cognitive and emotional aspects of experiences in nature. Although these experiences can change participants' behaviors and attitudes toward the natural world, this field remains largely unstudied. As such, even though NBCS can complement efforts to increase opportunities for people to interact with nature, further research on the mechanisms that drive this relationship is needed to strengthen our understanding of various outcomes of citizen science.
Evidence that urban green-space promotes health and well-being of urban residents is increasing. The role of biodiversity is unclear: perceived biodiversity may be important, but how accurately it is perceived and the factors influencing this accuracy are poorly understood. We use experimental perennial urban meadows in southern England to investigate the impact of creating biodiverse habitats on green-space users’ i) physical and mental health, psychological well-being, ii) factors moderating health and well-being outcomes (site satisfaction and nature connectedness), and iii) perceived biodiversity. We explore whether ‘nature dose’ (time spent at a site) influences these relationships. We then assess whether green-space users can estimate botanical diversity accurately across meadow treatments differing in plant species richness and vegetation structure, and determine the environmental cues and personal characteristics associated with these estimates. Sites with experimental meadows did not increase respondents’ perceptions of site level biodiversity, their self-rated physical and mental health or psychological well-being relative to control sites lacking meadows. However, there were significant associations between perceived site level biodiversity per se, and site satisfaction and feeling connected to nature. Moreover, we observed a positive association between nature dose and self-estimated mental health. We found that actual and perceived botanical richness in individual meadow plots were strongly positively correlated. Perceived richness was positively associated with vegetation height, evenness, and colourfulness suggesting that these are cues for estimating species richness. The accuracy of estimates varied, but respondents with higher levels of eco-centricity were more accurate than people who were less connected to nature.
Research from a variety of scientific fields suggests that physical activity in nature and feelings of connection to nature enhance psychological health and well-being. This study investigated the psychological health and well-being impact of the physical activity environment for those already undertaking the recommended weekly amount of physical activity. This topic is important for the design of health and well-being environments and interventions involving physical activity. Participants (N = 262) aged 18–71 years (M = 34.5, SD = 13.1) who met the UK physical activity guidelines completed the Nature Relatedness Scale, the trait section of the State Trait Inventory for Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety and the Psychological Well-Being Scale. Analysis via Multivariate ANOVA indicated that participants who engaged in outdoor physical activity reported significantly lower somatic anxiety levels and higher Nature Relatedness experience (NRexp). Significant results were not evident for wellbeing. Hierarchical regressions revealed that the psychological well-being facet of autonomy, NRexp, and outdoor physical activity predicted lower somatic anxiety, whereas indoor physical activity predicted higher somatic anxiety. Results indicate that somatic anxiety is lower for outdoor physical activity participation, and that outdoor activity, in conjunction with autonomy and NRexp, predicts lower anxiety levels. The findings extend previous work by demonstrating the impact of the physical activity environment on anxiety levels, as well as the contribution of outdoor physical activity and well-being facets to the previously established Nature Relatedness-anxiety relationship.
Losses in biodiversity and trends toward urbanisation have reduced people’s contact with biodiverse nature, yet the consequences for mental well-being are not well understood. Here, we demonstrate that greater plant and animal species richness in isolation causes an improvement in mental well-being. To do so, the present research experimentally manipulated species richness and assessed widely-used indicators of mental well-being. Participants viewed short videos of either high or low tree (Study 1) or bird (Study 2) species richness and reported on positive (i.e., vitality, positive affect) and negative (i.e., anxiety) indicators of mental well-being. Building on Study 1, Study 2 included an urban environment as a reference treatment and explored the role of giving participants information on the presented environment. We find that, in line with expectations, watching videos containing greater species richness consistently leads to higher mental well-being. We discuss findings in light of the importance of connecting people to biodiverse environments.
Despite decades of awareness about the biodiversity crisis, it remains a wicked problem. Besides preservation and restoration strategies, one approach has focused on increasing public concern about biodiversity issues by emphasizing opportunities for people to experience natural environments. In this essay, we endeavor to complicate the understanding of these experiences of nature (EoN). Because EoN are embedded in social and cultural contexts, transformative or new EoN are emerging in combination with societal changes in work, home, and technology. Policies that acknowledge and accept a diversity of culturally-situated EoN, including negative EoN, could help people reconnect with the complexity and dynamics of biodiversity. A new conceptualization of EoN that encompasses diverse experiences and reflects the sociocultural context could help to stimulate a broader transformation in the relationship between society and nature, one that better integrates the two spheres. Such a transformation is necessary to more effectively address the biodiversity crisis.
Nature within cities will have a central role in helping address key global public health challenges associated with urbanization. However, there is almost no guidance on how much or how frequently people need to engage with nature, and what types or characteristics of nature need to be incorporated in cities for the best health outcomes. Here we use a nature dose framework to examine the associations between the duration, frequency and intensity of exposure to nature and health in an urban population. We show that people who made long visits to green spaces had lower rates of depression and high blood pressure, and those who visited more frequently had greater social cohesion. Higher levels of physical activity were linked to both duration and frequency of green space visits. A dose-response analysis for depression and high blood pressure suggest that visits to outdoor green spaces of 30 minutes or more during the course of a week could reduce the population prevalence of these illnesses by up to 7% and 9% respectively. Given that the societal costs of depression alone in Australia are estimated at AUD$12.6 billion per annum, savings to public health budgets across all health outcomes could be immense.
Natural environments are associated with positive health and well-being. However, little is known about the influence of environmental qualities on well-being and the mechanisms underlying this association. This study explored whether perceived restorativeness and it subscales would mediate the effects of perceived biodiversity, perceived naturalness, walk duration and perceived intensity on emotional well-being.Participants (n = 127) of a national walking program in England completed pre- and post-walk questionnaires (n = 1009) for each group walk attended within a 13-week period. Multilevel mediation examined the hypothesised indirect effects.Perceived restorativeness mediated the effects of perceived bird biodiversity, perceived naturalness, and perceived walk intensity on positive affect, happiness and negative affect. The effect of walk duration on happiness was also mediated by perceived restorativeness. Perceived walk intensity had a direct effect on positive affect and happiness.Findings have implications for theory development, future biodiversity-health research and practitioners interested in designing restorative environments.
Over 30 years of research has shown that urban nature is a promising tool for enhancing the physical, psychological, and social well-being of the world's growing urban population. However, little is known about the type and amount of nature people require in order to receive different health benefits, preventing the development of recommendations for minimum levels of exposure and targeted city planning guidelines for public health outcomes. Dose-response modelling, when a dose of nature is modeled against a health response, could provide a key method for addressing this knowledge gap. In this overview, we explore how “nature dose” and health response have been conceptualized and examine the evidence for different shapes of dose-response curves. We highlight the crucial need to move beyond simplistic measures of nature dose to understand how urban nature can be manipulated to enhance human health.
The value of local ecological knowledge (LEK) to conservation is increasingly recognised, but LEK is being rapidly lost as indigenous livelihoods change. Biodiversity loss is also a driver of the loss of LEK, but quantitative study is lacking. In our study landscape in SW China, a large proportion of species have been extirpated. Hence, we were interested to understand whether species extirpation might have led to an erosion of LEK and the implications this might have for conservation. So we investigated peoples' ability to name a selection of birds and mammals in their local language from pictures. Age was correlated to frequency of forest visits as a teenager and is likely to be closely correlated to other known drivers of the loss of LEK, such as declining forest dependence. We found men were better at identifying birds overall and that older people were better able to identify birds to the species as compared to group levels (approximately equivalent to genus). The effect of age was also stronger among women. However, after controlling for these factors, species abundance was by far the most important parameter in determining peoples' ability to name birds. People were unable to name any locally extirpated birds at the species level. However, contrary to expectations, people were better able to identify extirpated mammals at the species level than extant ones. However, extirpated mammals tend to be more charismatic species and several respondents indicated they were only familiar with them through TV documentaries. Younger people today cannot experience the sights and sounds of forest animals that their parents grew up with and, consequently, knowledge of these species is passing from cultural memory. We suggest that engaging older members of the community and linking the preservation of LEK to biodiversity conservation may help generate support for conservation.
The construct of (dis)connection with nature or “nature relatedness” has become increasingly useful in the study of environmental behavior as well as psychological health and well-being. Strong nature relatedness is associated with greater happiness and ecologically sustainable behavior. A number of scales reliably assess individual differences in nature relatedness, but some circumstances may necessitate a brief measure. We developed a short-form version of the nature relatedness scale (NR-6), comprised of 6 items from the “self” and “experience” dimensions, and tested the new scale's predictive ability across multiple samples and with longitudinal data in students, community members, and business people. The new NR-6 scale demonstrated good internal consistency, temporal stability, and predicted happiness, environmental concern, and nature contact. This new brief measure of connectedness may have advantages where time and space are limited and the research context requires an assessment of connectedness elements rather than environmental attitudes.
Human perception of plant leaf and flower colour can influence species management. Colour and colour contrast may influence the detectability of invasive or rare species during surveys. Quantitative, repeatable measures of plant colour are required for comparison across studies and generalisation across species. We present a standard method for measuring plant leaf and flower colour traits using images taken with digital cameras. We demonstrate the method by quantifying the colour of and colour difference between the flowers of eleven grassland species near Falls Creek, Australia, as part of an invasive species detection experiment. The reliability of the method was tested by measuring the leaf colour of five residential garden shrub species in Ballarat, Australia using five different types of digital camera. Flowers and leaves had overlapping but distinct colour distributions. Calculated colour differences corresponded well with qualitative comparisons. Estimates of proportional cover of yellow flowers identified using colour measurements correlated well with estimates obtained by measuring and counting individual flowers. Digital SLR and mirrorless cameras were superior to phone cameras and point-and-shoot cameras for producing reliable measurements, particularly under variable lighting conditions. The analysis of digital images taken with digital cameras is a practicable method for quantifying plant flower and leaf colour in the field or lab. Quantitative, repeatable measurements allow for comparisons between species and generalisations across species and studies. This allows plant colour to be related to human perception and preferences and, ultimately, species management.
There is mounting empirical evidence that interacting with nature delivers measurable benefits to people. Reviews of this topic have generally focused on a specific type of benefit, been limited to a single discipline, or covered the benefits delivered from a particular type of interaction. Here we construct novel typologies of the settings, interactions and potential benefits of people-nature experiences, and use these to organise an assessment of the benefits of interacting with nature. We discover that evidence for the benefits of interacting with nature is geographically biased towards high latitudes and Western societies, potentially contributing to a focus on certain types of settings and benefits. Social scientists have been the most active researchers in this field. Contributions from ecologists are few in number, perhaps hindering the identification of key ecological features of the natural environment that deliver human benefits. Although many types of benefits have been studied, benefits to physical health, cognitive performance and psychological well-being have received much more attention than the social or spiritual benefits of interacting with nature, despite the potential for important consequences arising from the latter. The evidence for most benefits is correlational, and although there are several experimental studies, little as yet is known about the mechanisms that are important for delivering these benefits. For example, we do not know which characteristics of natural settings (e.g., biodiversity, level of disturbance, proximity, accessibility) are most important for triggering a beneficial interaction, and how these characteristics vary in importance among cultures, geographic regions and socio-economic groups. These are key directions for future research if we are to design landscapes that promote high quality interactions between people and nature in a rapidly urbanising world.
While there is growing consensus that nature should be promoted in cities, it is less clear what kind of nature this should be. One hypothesis is that humans like those parts of nature morethat they know better. Using questionnaires, we studied the familiarity of 475 students with 91 urban animal species and the relationship between familiarity and attitude towards the species. Students were familiar with most animals, but not all animals were equally liked. Better-known species were not generally the better-liked ones. The more familiar animal species were on average, the more extreme attitudes became towards them, both positive and negative. Our research shows that familiarity and attitudeare not two sides of the same coin. It also emphasizes that there are parts of nature that are not liked by many humans and that this dislike is not necessarily correlated with insufficient knowledge. Detailed studies of what component of nature humans like and reasons underlying this are necessary to successfully increase nature in cities.
Urbanization and urban lifestyle are progressively diminishing individuals' opportunity (e.g., nature exposure) to experience and orientation (affinity) towards nature, ultimately reducing people's experiences of nature. This process has been described as the 'extinction of experience' (EoE), and it was suggested that it can alter the way people benefit from, interact with, learn about, emotionally connect with and commit to protect the natural world. The EoE is underpinned by interconnected relations between the drivers, nature experiences and outcomes , yet to date most research have focused on bilateral relations (e.g. between opportunity and well-being). Here we adopt a holistic approach to jointly explore the network of relationships suggested by the EoE theory. We conducted a survey of 523 inhabitants of a large metropolis, Tel Aviv, Israel, living in neighborhoods varying in nature intensity levels, and explored their orientation, health, well-being, environmental attitudes and conservation behaviors. Using a structural equation model, we empirically demonstrated the validity of the theoretical model of the EoE, but also showed more complex relationships. For instance, opportunity to experience urban nature was only related to health and well-being benefits, while orientation towards nature was related to well-being, conservation attitudes and behaviors in different contexts. Thus, providing opportunities to experience nature seems to be less sufficient than strengthening people's orientation to avert the EoE, as the latter can simultaneously enhance nature experiences, conservation behaviors and provide social benefits. This knowledge is pivotal if we are to promote policies that achieve the behavioral changes needed to mitigate the biodiversity crisis.
We compared the experience with nature of today’s children with data from the beginning of the 20th century to determine whether we can confirm a loss of experience and contribute to the description of changes in children’s relationship with nature. We used a questionnaire originally published in 1900 for this survey. Results from contemporary participants tested by ANOVA showed no difference in level of experience according to the age of the respondents. Comparing historical data with current data by a Z-test for proportions and Cohen’s h, we found a significant increase in contemporary children’s summary experiences. Although children of the 21st century have less experience with traditional extensive farming activities and biotechnologies, they have much more experience with nature, apparently connected with recreational and field-trip activities. We cannot confirm a decrease in experience among generations, on the contrary, we found a summary increase in experience.
Contact with, and psychological connectedness to the natural world are both associated with various health and sustainability-related outcomes. To date, though, the evidence base has been fragmented. Using a representative sample of the adult population of England (N = 4,960), we investigated the relationships between three types of nature contact, psychological connectedness, health, subjective wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviours within a single study. We found that specific types of nature contact, as well as individual differences in nature connectedness, were differentially associated with aspects of health, well-being and pro-environmental behaviours. Living in a greener neighbourhood was, unrelated to any wellbeing or sustainability outcomes. By contrast, visiting nature ≥ once a week was positively associated with general health and household pro-environmental behaviours. Moreover, people who watched/listened to nature documentaries reported higher levels of both pro-environmental behaviours. Nature connectedness was positively related to eudaimonic wellbeing and both types of pro-environmental behaviour. Moreover, connectedness moderated key relationships between nature contact, wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviours. The complexity of our findings suggests that interventions increasing both contact with, and connection to nature, are likely to be needed in order to achieve synergistic improvements to human and planetary health.
Urbanization threatens biodiversity and people’s opportunities to interact with nature. This progressive dis-connection from the natural world is profoundly concerning as it affects human health, wellbeing, attitudes and behaviors towards nature. Increasing the quantity of experiences of nature (EoN) can enhance health and wellbeing benefits, but it remains unclear whether it can also affect environmental attitudes across different countries. Here, we conducted a cross-cultural survey among 741 people from France, Israel and the UK, who either own a dog (and thus prone to go outdoors to walk their dog), a cat, or no pet. This setting was used as a quasi-experiment to explore the relationships between EoN, nature relatedness, environmental knowledge and attitudes. Our results confirmed that dog-owners have a higher quantity of EoN. However, we found that although dog-ownership was associated with people’s relatedness to nature, the increased quantity of EoN did not correlate with environmental knowledge or attitudes. Thus, increasing the quantity of EoN may not be sufficient for mitigating the effects of the extinction of experience and consequently a more profound understanding of the quality of EoN and the means to enhance it are needed. This knowledge is crucial to help landscape planners
provide accessible and suitably designed green spaces that can foster meaningful interactions with nature, for instance through specific gardening practices or creative design.
Multicollinearity is the phenomenon in which two or more identified predictor variables in a multiple regression model are highly correlated. The presence of this phenomenon can have a negative impact on the analysis as a whole and can severely limit the conclusions of the research study. This paper reviews and provides examples of the different ways in which multicollinearity can affect a research project, how to detect multicollinearity and how one can reduce it through Ridge Regression applications. This paper is intended for any level of SAS® user.
This study examines individual commitment to biodiversity during adulthood. We studied the interrelations between everyday experiences of nature, knowledge about biodiversity, connectedness with nature, and implementation of specific pro-biodiversity practices, through a survey covering 473 adults in Paris surroundings (France). More specifically, we showed that people involved in experiences of nature in which attentiveness to biodiversity is explicit (citizen science, nature watch association, environmental association) have more knowledge about biodiversity and conservation than both people involved in experiences of nature in which attention to biodiversity remains implicit (community garden, allotment, community-supported agriculture), and people without such kinds of experience of nature. However, we found that people experiencing nature as part of a daily routine, whatever the type of experience, were more connected to nature and more likely to implement active pro-biodiversity practices. With this interdisciplinary study that links conservation biology and conservation psychology, we help understand more precisely the levels of commitment of urban and sub-urban adults toward biodiversity conservation.
With ongoing environmental degradation at local, regional, and global scales, people's accepted thresholds for environmental conditions are continually being lowered. In the absence of past information or experience with historical conditions, members of each new generation accept the situation in which they were raised as being normal. This psychological and sociological phenomenon is termed shifting baseline syndrome (SBS), which is increasingly recognized as one of the fundamental obstacles to addressing a wide range of today's global environmental issues. Yet our understanding of this phenomenon remains incomplete. We provide an overview of the nature and extent of SBS and propose a conceptual framework for understanding its causes, consequences, and implications. We suggest that there are several self‐reinforcing feedback loops that allow the consequences of SBS to further accelerate SBS through progressive environmental degradation. Such negative implications highlight the urgent need to dedicate considerable effort to preventing and ultimately reversing SBS.
While urban growth contributes to the biodiversity crisis, biodiverse greenspaces within cities could support both human wellbeing and biodiversity conservation. Yet, urban greenspaces are under pressure due to the rapid densification of cities worldwide. Urban conservation policies thus need broad support, ideally from people with different sociocultural backgrounds. Whether urban residents prefer biodiverse over simply green spaces, however, largely remains an open question. We tested how diverse respondents (N = 3716) from five European cities valued three levels of biodiversity (plant species richness) in four ubiquitous greenspace types. Our field survey revealed that biodiversity matters: People largely prefer higher plant species richness in urban greenspaces (i.e., parks, wastelands, streetscapes) and agree that higher plant species richness allows for more liveable cities. Despite variation across European cities, positive valuations of high plant species richness prevailed among different sociocultural groups, including people of migrant background. The results of this study can thus support policies on a biodiversity-friendly development and management of urban greenspaces by highlighting social arguments for integrating biodiversity into urban development plans.
Associations between parks and mental health have typically been investigated in relation to the presence or absence of mental illness. This study uses a validated measure of positive mental health and data from RESIDential Environments (RESIDE) Project to investigate the association between the presence, amount and attributes of public green space in new greenfield neighbourhood developments and the mental health of local residents (n = 492). Both the overall number and total area of public green spaces were significantly associated with greater mental wellbeing, and findings support a dose-response relationship. Positive mental health was not only associated with parks with a nature focus, but also with green spaces characterised by recreational and sporting activity. The study demonstrates that adequate provision of public green space in local neighbourhoods and within walking distance is important for positive mental health.
Global phenomena, including urbanization, agricultural intensification, and biotic homogenization, have led to extensive ecosystem degradation, species extinctions, and, consequently, a reduction in biodiversity. However, although it is now widely asserted in the research, policy, and practice arenas that interacting with nature is fundamental to human health and well-being, there is a paucity of nuanced evidence characterizing how the living components of nature, biodiversity, play a role in this accepted truth. Understanding these human–biodiversity relationships is essential if the conservation agenda is to be aligned successfully with that of public health by policymakers and practitioners. Here, we show that an apparent “people–biodiversity paradox” is emerging from the literature, comprising a mismatch between (a) people’s biodiversity preferences and how these inclinations relate to personal subjective well-being and (b) the limited ability of individuals to accurately
perceive the biodiversity surrounding them. In addition, we present a conceptual framework for understanding the complexity underpinning human–biodiversity interactions.
Increasingly, people are becoming less likely to have direct contact with nature (natural environments and their associated wildlife) in their everyday lives. Over 20 years ago, Robert M Pyle termed this ongoing alienation the “extinction of experience”, but the phenomenon has continued to receive surprisingly limited attention. Here, we present current understanding of the extinction of experience, with particular emphasis on its causes and consequences, and suggest future research directions. Our review illustrates that the loss of interaction with nature not only diminishes a wide range of benefits relating to health and well-being, but also discourages positive emotions, attitudes, and behavior with regard to the environment, implying a cycle of disaffection toward nature. Such serious implications highlight the importance of reconnecting people with nature, as well as focusing research and public policy on addressing and improving awareness of the extinction of experience.
This study investigated the relationship between anxiety and feelings of being connected to nature. Two standardised self-report scales, the Nature Relatedness Scale and the State Trait Inventory for Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety, were used in tandem with a qualitative question. Quantitative results indicated that connection to nature was significantly related to lower levels of overall, state cognitive and trait cognitive anxiety. Qualitative results revealed seven themes: relaxation, time out, enjoyment, connection, expanse, sensory engagement and a healthy perspective. Taken together, these results suggest that opportunities that enhance experiences of being connected to nature may reduce unhelpful anxiety.
Urbanization, resource exploitation, and lifestyle changes have diminished possibilities for human contact with nature in urbanized societies. Concern about the loss has helped motivate research on the health benefits of contact with nature. Reviewing that research here, we focus on nature as represented by aspects of the physical environment relevant to planning, design, and policy measures that serve broad segments of urbanized societies. We discuss difficulties in defining "nature" and reasons for the current expansion of the research field, and we assess available reviews. We then consider research on pathways between nature and health involving air quality, physical activity, social cohesion, and stress reduction. Finally, we discuss methodological issues and priorities for future research. The extant research does describe an array of benefits of contact with nature, and evidence regarding some benefits is strong; however, some findings indicate caution is needed in applying beliefs about those benefits, and substantial gaps in knowledge remain. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Public Health Volume 35 is March 18, 2014. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/catalog/pubdates.aspx for revised estimates.
Urban ecology is emerging as an integrative science that explores the interactions of people and biodiversity in cities. Interdisciplinary research requires the creation of new tools that allow the investigation of relations between people and biodiversity. It has been established that access to green spaces or nature benefits city dwellers, but the role of species diversity in providing psychological benefits remains poorly studied. We developed a user-friendly 3-dimensional computer program (Virtual Garden [www.tinyurl.com/3DVirtualGarden]) that allows people to design their own public or private green spaces with 95 biotic and abiotic features. Virtual Garden allows researchers to explore what elements of biodiversity people would like to have in their nearby green spaces while accounting for other functions that people value in urban green spaces. In 2011, 732 participants used our Virtual Garden program to design their ideal small public garden. On average gardens contained 5 different animals, 8 flowers, and 5 woody plant species. Although the mathematical distribution of flower and woody plant richness (i.e., number of species per garden) appeared to be similar to what would be expected by random selection of features, 30% of participants did not place any animal species in their gardens. Among those who placed animals in their gardens, 94% selected colorful species (e.g., ladybug [Coccinella septempunctata], Great Tit [Parus major], and goldfish), 53% selected herptiles or large mammals, and 67% selected non-native species. Older participants with a higher level of education and participants with a greater concern for nature designed gardens with relatively higher species richness and more native species. If cities are to be planned for the mutual benefit of people and biodiversity and to provide people meaningful experiences with urban nature, it is important to investigate people's relations with biodiversity further. Virtual Garden offers a standardized tool with which to explore these relations in different environments, cultures, and countries. It can also be used by stakeholders (e.g., city planners) to consider people's opinions of local design.
Programa de Computadora de Jardín Virtual para Uso en la Exploración de los Elementos de Biodiversidad que la Gente Desea en las Ciudades
La ecología urbana está emergiendo como una ciencia integradora que explora las interacciones de la gente y la biodiversidad en las ciudades. La investigación interdisciplinaria requiere la creación de nuevas herramientas que permitan la investigación de las relaciones entre la gente y la biodiversidad. Se ha establecido que el acceso a áreas verdes o a la naturaleza beneficia a los habitantes de ciudades, pero el papel específico de la diversidad de especies para proveer beneficios psicológicos permanece poco estudiado. Desarrollamos un programa de computadora amable con el usuario y en tercera dimensión (Virtual Garden [www.tinyurl.com/3DVirtualGarden]) que permite a las personas diseñar áreas verdes propias o públicas con 96 rasgos bióticos y abióticos. Virtual Garden permite a los investigadores determinar los elementos de la biodiversidad que a la gente le gustaría tener en las áreas verdes cercanas al mismo tiempo que se toman en cuenta otras funciones que la gente valora en esas zonas. En 2011, 732 participantes utilizaron nuestro programa Virtual Garden para diseñar su jardín público ideal. En promedio, los jardines contenían 5 animales diferentes, 8 flores y 5 especies de plantas leñosas. Aunque la distribución matemática de la riqueza de flores y plantas leñosas (p. ej.: número de especies por jardín) pareció ser similar a lo que se esperaría de una selección aleatoria de rasgos, el 30% de los participantes no colocó especies animales en su jardín. Entre los que colocaron especies animales en sus jardines, el 94% seleccionó especies coloridas (p. ej.: mariquita o catarina [Coccinella septempunctata], carbonero común [Parus major] y peces dorados), el 53% seleccionó reptiles o mamíferos grandes, y el 67% seleccionó especies no-nativas. Los participantes mayores y con un nivel más alto de educación y los participantes con una mayor preocupación por la naturaleza diseñaron jardines con una riqueza de especies relativamente mayor y más especies nativas. Si las ciudades se diseñarán para el beneficio mutuo de las personas y la biodiversidad y para proporcionarle a la gente experiencias significativas con la naturaleza urbana, es importante investigar más a fondo las relaciones entre la gente y la biodiversidad. Virtual Garden ofrece una herramienta estandarizada con la cual se pueden explorar estas relaciones en diferentes ambientes, culturas y países. También puede ser usada por las partes interesadas (p. ej.: planeadores urbanos) para considerar la opinión de las personas en el diseño local.