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"Bonn, Aletta"
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Urban street tree biodiversity and antidepressant prescriptions
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.
Journal Article
Recognizing the quiet extinction of invertebrates
Invertebrates are central to the functioning of ecosystems, yet they are underappreciated and understudied. Recent work has shown that they are suffering from rapid decline. Here we call for a greater focus on invertebrates and make recommendations for future investigation.
Journal Article
Nature-based solutions to climate change mitigation and adaptation in urban areas
Nature-based solutions promoting green and blue urban areas have significant potential to decrease the vulnerability and enhance the resilience of cities in light of climatic change. They can thereby help to mitigate climate change-induced impacts and serve as proactive adaptation options for municipalities. We explore the various contexts in which nature-based solutions are relevant for climate mitigation and adaptation in urban areas, identify indicators for assessing the effectiveness of nature-based solutions and related knowledge gaps. In addition, we explore existing barriers and potential opportunities for increasing the scale and effectiveness of nature-based solution implementation. The results were derived from an inter- and transdisciplinary workshop with experts from research, municipalities, policy, and society. As an outcome of the workshop discussions and building on existing evidence, we highlight three main needs for future science and policy agendas when dealing with nature-based solutions: (i) produce stronger evidence on nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation and raise awareness by increasing implementation; (ii) adapt for governance challenges in implementing nature-based solutions by using reflexive approaches, which implies bringing together new networks of society, nature-based solution ambassadors, and practitioners; (iii) consider socio-environmental justice and social cohesion when implementing nature-based solutions by using integrated governance approaches that take into account an integrative and transdisciplinary participation of diverse actors. Taking these needs into account, nature-based solutions can serve as climate mitigation and adaptation tools that produce additional cobenefits for societal well-being, thereby serving as strong investment options for sustainable urban planning.
Journal Article
Non-material contributions of wildlife to human well-being: a systematic review
Wildlife has important effects on human well-being, ranging from beneficial contributions to life threatening interactions. Here, we systematically reviewed publications of both positive and negative non-material contributions of wildlife to people (WCP) for different taxonomic groups (birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians) and dimensions of human well-being such as health, social well-being, identity and spirituality. Overall, the majority of studies reported negative WCP, such as feelings of insecurity or injuries. However, over the last decade the number of publications on positive WCP such as good mental health, positive emotions or learning increased, mainly in the Global North. These spatial and temporal patterns may hint towards normative influences that drive the relative proportion of reported WCP. However, these normative influences are not yet well understood and future research should examine potential biases by conducting policy assessments or surveys among researchers to understand drivers and motivations behind their research questions. We found almost no joint assessments of positive and negative WCP for any wildlife species. Studies also showed taxon-specific differences in WCP outcomes, with predominantly positive WCP reported for birds and predominantly negative WCP published for mammals or reptiles. Physical health was the most dominant aspect of well-being studied and affected by WCP while other well-being dimensions such as social well-being, learning or identity were less frequently covered in the literature. Future studies should jointly evaluate positive and negative effects of wildlife on human well-being and implement multi-taxon approaches to obtain a more balanced and comprehensive understanding of WCP. These assessments of WCP will provide actionable science outcomes that will shape human-wildlife coexistence and promote human health and well-being.
Journal Article
Temporal trends in the spatial bias of species occurrence records
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 spatial bias of species occurrence records within multiple biodiversity databases in Germany and tested whether spatial bias in relation to land cover or land use (urban and protected areas) has changed over time. We focused our analyses on urban and protected areas as these represent two well‐known correlates of sampling bias in biodiversity datasets. We found that the proportion of annual records from urban areas has increased over time while the proportion of annual records within protected areas has not consistently changed. Using simulations, we examined the implications of this changing sampling bias for estimation of long‐term trends of species' distributions. When assessing biodiversity change, our findings suggest that the effects of spatial bias depend on how it affects sampling of the underlying land‐use change drivers affecting species. Oversampling of regions undergoing the greatest degree of change, for instance near human settlements, might lead to overestimation of the trends of specialist species. For robust estimation of the long‐term trends in species' distributions, analyses using species occurrence records may need to consider not only spatial bias, but also changes in the spatial bias through time.
Journal Article
Action needed for the EU Common Agricultural Policy to address sustainability challenges
Making agriculture sustainable is a global challenge. In the European Union (EU), the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is failing with respect to biodiversity, climate, soil, land degradation as well as socio‐economic challenges. The European Commission's proposal for a CAP post‐2020 provides a scope for enhanced sustainability. However, it also allows Member States to choose low‐ambition implementation pathways. It therefore remains essential to address citizens' demands for sustainable agriculture and rectify systemic weaknesses in the CAP, using the full breadth of available scientific evidence and knowledge. Concerned about current attempts to dilute the environmental ambition of the future CAP, and the lack of concrete proposals for improving the CAP in the draft of the European Green Deal, we call on the European Parliament, Council and Commission to adopt 10 urgent action points for delivering sustainable food production, biodiversity conservation and climate mitigation. Knowledge is available to help moving towards evidence‐based, sustainable European agriculture that can benefit people, nature and their joint futures. The statements made in this article have the broad support of the scientific community, as expressed by above 3,600 signatories to the preprint version of this manuscript. The list can be found here (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3685632). A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
Journal Article
Social license through citizen science: a tool for marine conservation
Active and meaningful public engagement is necessary to foster informed and publicly accepted natural resource management. Citizen science presents an important avenue by which to achieve such engagement. Citizen science is the active involvement of the public in science to address scientific questions, often of common interest or concern, by collecting and analyzing data, and publishing and communicating science via diverse outlets. Here, we explore whether and how citizen science can also play a role in generating social license for marine conservation, using European marine citizen science as a case study. Social license is a concept that reflects community views and expectations on the use and management of natural resources. To date, social license in the marine space has largely focused on public perceptions of industrial and extractive uses of the marine environment, and limited research has explored social license for conservation. We highlight important linkages between social license and citizen science that can work synergistically to support conservation. We use in-depth qualitative interviews and a semiquantitative online survey of marine citizen science coordinators to investigate how citizen science can play a role in enhancing social license and the mechanisms through which it can occur. Our findings indicate that citizen science can enhance social license by improving ocean literacy and marine citizenship. We demonstrate that marine citizen science has considerable potential to generate and develop social license for marine conservation in Europe and elsewhere.
Journal Article
Decision-making of citizen scientists when recording species observations
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 developed a questionnaire to ask citizen scientists about their decision-making before, during and after collecting and reporting species observations, using Germany as a case study. We quantified the greatest sources of variability among respondents and assessed whether motivations and experience related to any aspect of data collection. Our questionnaire was answered by almost 900 people, with varying taxonomic foci and expertise. Respondents were most often motivated by improving species knowledge and supporting conservation, but there were no linkages between motivations and data collection methods. By contrast, variables related to experience and knowledge, such as membership of a natural history society, were linked with a greater propensity to conduct planned searches, during which typically all species were reported. Our findings have implications for how citizen science data are analysed in statistical models; highlight the importance of natural history societies and provide pointers to where citizen science projects might be further developed.
Journal Article
Urban green space soundscapes and their perceived restorativeness
The positive influence of urban green spaces on human health and well‐being is well known while the pathways are little understood. Past research has largely focused on visual stimuli, yet the auditory pathway is also an important means for contact with nature. The sonic environments of urban green spaces, however, are rarely entirely natural and many differ in their composition of natural sounds and anthropogenic noise. Few studies have investigated how these differences may impact the restorative potential of these soundscapes and, in particular, how the presence of traffic noise may constrain the benefits of natural sounds. To address this gap, we examined differences in the perceived restorativeness and perceived restorative outcomes across a gradient of eight park soundscapes that differed in bird and traffic sounds. In a laboratory setting, 162 participants listened to sound samples and reported on perceptions of the soundscapes and restorative potential and outcomes. The results strongly indicate that park soundscapes with a rich array of perceived bird sounds and minimal perceived traffic noise offer the greatest perceived restoration. Traffic noise was found to moderate the positive effect of bird sounds. The duration of time lived in the city and noise sensitivity were also positively associated with greater perceived restorative benefits while noise‐sensitive people were also more negatively affected by traffic noise. The promotion of highly natural soundscapes in urban green spaces and the reduction of traffic noise can provide nature‐based solutions to human health and well‐being in urban areas. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
Journal Article