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Disturbance to ecosystems in parks and protected areas from nature-based tourism and recreation is increasing in scale and severity, as are the impacts of climate change—but there is limited research examining the degree to which these anthropogenic disturbances interact. In this perspective paper, we draw on the available literature to expose complex recreation and climate interactions that may alter ecosystems of high conservation value such that important species and processes no longer persist. Our emphasis is on ecosystems in high demand for tourism and recreation that also are increasingly experiencing stress from climate change. We discuss the importance of developing predictive models of direct and indirect effects, including threshold and legacy effects at different levels of biological organization. We present a conceptual model of these interactions to initiate a dialog among researchers and managers so that new research approaches and managerial frameworks are advanced to address this emerging issue.

Recreation ecology - the study of the environmental consequences of outdoor recreation/nature-based tourism activities and their effective management - is an emerging field of global importance. A primary research generalization in this field, the use-impact relationship, is commonly described as curvilinear, with proportionally more impact from initial recreation/tourism use. This finding has formed the basis of visitor management strategies in parks, wilderness, and protected areas in many parts of the world. In this paper, however, we argue that the current generalization may be an oversimplification derived from one ecological response: the response of vegetation cover in some plant communities to trampling. Use-response functions for other plant communities, wildlife, soils, and aquatic/marine systems, for example, can differ and require alternative management strategies for sustainable use. On the basis of the available literature, we propose several alternative response relationships.

Wildland recreation that does not involve animal harvests (non-consumptive recreation) often influences various components of natural systems, including soils, water, air, soundscapes, vegetation, and wildlife. The effects of non-consumptive recreation on wildlife have typically been assessed at spatial scales that are not only much smaller than the overall distributions of this disturbance but also much smaller than the areas that species use during a season or year. This disparity in scales has prevented effective assessment and management of broad-scale recreation disturbance for many species, especially wildlife. We applied three software systems (ArcGIS, FRAGSTATS, and Conefor) to demonstrate how metrics commonly measured by landscape ecologists can be used to quantify broad-scale patterns of non-consumptive recreation. Analysts can employ such metrics to develop predictive models of how recreation disturbance - by itself and in additive or interactive combinations with other landscape characteristics - may affect wildlife responses across large areas. In turn, these models can inform decision making in broad-scale recreation management.

This article examines the challenge of preserving ecological conditions and maintaining accessibility in parks and protected areas (PPA). Drawing from empirical research that analyzes the social concept of recreation specialization, the selective channeling of interests and abilities into a specific recreational activity. This study aims to better understand recreation behavior across a sample population of recreationists in urban-proximate park settings at the Nature Reserve of Orange County, CA. Multivariate classification methods and an exploratory factor analysis assisted in the summarization of survey data, grouping recreationists based on commonalities and varying expressions of involvement, commitment, and skill. A one-way analysis of variance demonstrated significant and positive relationships across specialization types and various behavioral characteristics, supporting empirical research conducted in wildland settings. More specifically, positive relationships were found between specialization and recreation ecology attitudes, resource use and dependency, management perceptions, conservation knowledge, Nature Reserve/park values, and self-reported specialization. Trends displayed at an activity specific level in this research demonstrate that specialization dynamics vary according to activity type, which further endorses the idea that specialization is composed of unique social expressions that do not necessarily depict a developmental process or progression of behavior, attitudes, and preferences. Beyond identifying the ways in which specialization dynamics can influence recreation behavior and providing recreation managers with guidance to inform site-specific decisions, evidence from this study shows that measuring self-reported specialization can be as effective as implementing a multivariate classification approach. A novel result that can influence the way this concept is measured in future studies.

Despite the popularity of tourism and recreation in the Andes in South America and the regions conservation value, there is limited research on the ecological impacts of these types of anthropogenic use. Using a systematic quantitative literature review method, we found 47 recreation ecology studies from the Andes, 25 of which used an experimental design. Most of these were from the Southern Andes in Argentina (13 studies) or Chile (eight studies) with only four studies from the Northern Andes. These studies documented a range of impacts on vegetation, birds and mammals; including changes in plant species richness, composition and vegetation cover and the tolerance of wildlife of visitor use. There was little research on the impacts of visitors on soils and aquatic systems and for some ecoregions in the Andes. We identify research priorities across the region that will enhance management strategies to minimise visitor impacts in Andean ecosystems.

Environmental noise knows no boundaries, affecting even protected areas. Noise pollution, originating from both external and internal sources, imposes costs on these areas. It is associated with adverse health effects, while natural sounds contribute to cognitive and emotional improvements as ecosystem services. When it comes to parks, individual visitors hold unique perceptions of soundscapes, which can be shaped by various factors such as their motivations for visiting, personal norms, attitudes towards specific sounds, and expectations. In this study, we utilized linear models and geospatial data to evaluate how visitors’ personal norms and attitudes, the park’s acoustic environment, visitor counts, and the acoustic environment of visitors’ neighborhoods influenced their perception of soundscapes at Muir Woods National Monument. Our findings indicate that visitors’ subjective experiences had a greater impact on their perception of the park’s soundscape compared to purely acoustic factors like sound level of the park itself. Specifically, we found that motivations to hear natural sounds, interference caused by noise, sensitivity to noise, and the sound levels of visitors’ home neighborhoods influenced visitors’ perception of the park’s soundscape. Understanding how personal factors shape visitors’ soundscape perception can assist urban and non-urban park planners in effectively managing visitor experiences and expectations.

Recreation ecology, the study of environmental consequences of outdoor recreation activities and their effective management, is a relatively new field of scientific study having emerged over the last 50 years. During this time, numerous studies have improved our understanding of how use-related, environmental and managerial factors affect ecological conditions and processes. Most studies have focused on vegetation and soil responses to recreation-related trampling on trails and recreation sites using indicators such as percent vegetation cover and exposed mineral soil. This applied approach has and will continue to yield important information for land managers. However, for the field to advance, more attention needs to be given to other ecosystem attributes and to the larger aspects of environmental conservation occurring at landscape scales. This article is an effort at initiating a dialog on needed advances in the field. We begin by reviewing broadly generalizable knowledge of recreation ecology, to separate what is known from research gaps. Then, based on the authors' perspective of research in the USA and North America, several research directions are suggested as essential for continued progress in this field including theoretical development, broadening scale, integration with other disciplines, and examination of synergistic effects.

In the Arctic, as in many parts of the world, interactions with the natural world are an important part of people's experience and are often recorded in photographs. Emerging methods for automated content analysis of social media data offers opportunities to discover information on cultural ecosystem services from photographs across large samples of people and countries. We analysed over 800 000 Flickr photographs using Google's Cloud Vision algorithm to identify the components of the natural environment most photographed and to map how and where different people interact with nature across eight Arctic countries. Almost all (91.1%) of users took one or more photographs of biotic nature, and such photos account for over half (53.2%) of Arctic photos on Flickr. We find that although the vast majority of Arctic human-nature interactions occur outside protected areas, people are slightly more likely to photograph nature inside protected areas after accounting for the low accessibility of Arctic protected areas. Wildlife photographers travel further from roads than people who take fewer photographs of wildlife, and people venture much further from roads inside protected areas. A large diversity of nature was reflected in the photographs, from mammals, birds, fish, fungi, plants and invertebrates, signalling an untapped potential to connect and engage people in the appreciation and conservation of the natural world. Our findings suggest that, despite limitations, automated content analysis can be a rapid and readily accessed source of data on how and where people interact with nature, and a large-scale method for assessing cultural ecosystem services across countries and cultures.

Increased visitation to protected areas could have adverse impacts on the conservation values in the protected areas, and therefore effective visitor monitoring methods are needed to meet the complex management challenges that arise. Collecting data on human impacts is highly time consuming, thus requiring more effective tools that allow for high‐quality and long‐term measurements. In this study, we show how unmanned aerial vehicles (i.e. UAV or drones) could be used to monitor tourism impacts in protected areas. Tourism has boomed in national parks in Norway in recent years, such as in Jotunheimen National Park for which this study applies. We test the use of drones on a site where new tourist facilities will be established to set a baseline to identify future changes. We demonstrate how drones could help protected area management by monitoring visitor use patterns and commonly associated impacts such as trail condition (width and depth), vegetation structure and disturbances, informal trail proliferation, trampling, and trash and other impacts along the trails. We assessed accuracy and reliability compared with intensive field measurements of impacts and found low‐cost drones to be effective in mapping the study area with a resolution of 0.5 cm/pixel: drone derived trail measurements were comparable to traditional measurements with a negligible divergence on trail width measurements and a consistent 1.05 cm divergence on trail depth measurements that can be corrected with a few validation points. In addition, we created a high‐resolution vegetation classification map that could be used as a baseline for monitoring impacts. We conclude that drones can effectively contribute to visitor monitoring by reducing time spent in the field and by providing high‐resolution time series that could be used as baseline to measure tourism impacts on conservation values in protected areas. Human impacts in parks and protected areas are time‐consuming and costly to monitor. We show how using drones can become a cost‐efficient tool for high‐resolution monitoring of protected areas and to measure trail conditions such as trail width or depth (incision), as well as to generate digital surface models, orthophotos or vegetation classification maps based on a single sampling procedure.

Burgeoning urbanization, development and human activities have led to reduced opportunities for nature experience in quiet acoustic environments. Increasing noise affects both humans and wildlife alike. We experimentally altered human‐caused sound levels in a paired study using informational signs that encouraged quiet behaviours in week‐on, week‐off blocks on the trail system of Muir Woods National Monument, California, USA to test if the soundscape influences both wildlife and human experiences. Using continuous measurements from acoustic recording units (n = 13) spatially distributed within the park, we found signs significantly lowered sound levels by approximately 1.2 decibels (A‐weighted), thereby increasing listening area by 24% and bird availability by approximately 5.8% for every 1 decibel decrease. Visitor‐intercept surveys (n = 537) revealed that our mitigation increased the number of birds perceived by visitors, rankings of soundscape pleasantness, and importantly, preferences for soundscape management. By lowering human‐caused sound levels, we created an acoustic environment equivalent to a ~21% reduction in visitors. The positive feedback cycle we describe may lead to increased conservation support in a time when the extinction of nature experience looms. 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.