However, explicitly considering links between biodiversity and facilitation of cultural services may inform management of ecosystems to enhance the provisioning of services 12, 13, support public engagement (e.g. Yet, despite a growing understanding of the general importance of ecosystems for cultural services 6, 11, 12, experimental studies examining the specific role of biodiversity (i.e., the variety of life, including diversity within and between species 3) in facilitating these services are rare. Cultural services include ecosystems’ ability to stimulate educational benefits 4, 5, relieve stress 1, 6, 7, revitalize the brain’s ability to direct attention 6, 8, 9 and provide enjoyment through recreation 10. These results provide novel experimental evidence that multiple dimensions of biodiversity enhance human interest and suggest that conservation initiatives that maintain or restore biodiversity will help stimulate interest in ecosystems, facilitating educational and recreational benefits.Įcosystems underpin human wellbeing through their provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural services 1, 2, 3. In both studies, the presence of three of four phyla additively increased interest, supporting the importance of multiple, diverse phyla rather than a single particularly interesting phylum. A structural equation model revealed that functional diversity and colourfulness (of the whole scene) also partially mediated the effects of phyletic richness on interest in the online study. Interest was increased by phyletic richness (both studies), animal species richness (online study) and functional diversity (online study). In both experiments, we further quantified functional diversity, which varied freely, and within the online experiment we also included the hue diversity and colourfulness arising from the combination of organisms and the background scenes. We performed two experiments by manipulating: (1) the richness of lower (species) and higher taxonomic levels (phyla) in an image based, online survey, and (2) the richness of the higher taxonomic level (phyla) in live public exhibits. We therefore investigated the effects of different dimensions of animal biodiversity (species richness, phyletic richness and functional diversity) on self-reported interest using tide pools as a model system. However, no experimental tests of this biodiversity-interest hypothesis exist to date. In turn, more diverse communities may enhance human interest and facilitate provisioning of cultural services.
wildlife watching, tidepooling) can provide recreational and learning opportunities, with biologically diverse animal assemblages expected to be more stimulating to humans. Activities involving observation of wild organisms (e.g.
0 kommentar(er)
