The more the merrier? Perceived forest biodiversity promotes short‐term mental health and well‐being—A multicentre study

Rozario, Kevin; Oh, Rachel Rui Ying; Marselle, Melissa; Schröger, Erich; Gillerot, Loïc; Ponette, Quentin; Godbold, Douglas; Haluza, Daniela; Kilpi, Katriina; Müller, Dagmar; Roeber, Urte; Verheyen, Kris; Muys, Bart; Müller, Sandra; Shaw, Taylor; Bonn, Aletta

doi:10.1002/pan3.10564

Cited by 4 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…The accuracy of people's diversity estimations, however, might be influenced by whether they rate an environment's diversity alone, or in comparison to other environments. Of the studies that identified discrepancies between perceived and actual diversity, two studies used cross-sectional measurements (Dallimer et al, 2012;Phillips et al, 2021), while in Rozario et al (2024) participants were assigned to one environment only. In the present study, however, several forest environments were rated against each other, which enabled participants to directly compare diversity levels.…”

Section: Association Between Perceived and Actual Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies have also juxtaposed the associations of measured and perceived biodiversity with mental well-being. In these cases, perceived biodiversity was found to have a stronger effect on mental well-being than measured biodiversity (Cameron et al, 2020;Dallimer et al, 2012;Farris et al, 2024;Rozario et al, 2024;Schebella et al, 2019;Zumhof, 2019). Indeed, Rozario et al (2024), Farris et al (2024 and Zumhof (2019) only found significant mental wellbeing effects for perceived biodiversity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In these cases, perceived biodiversity was found to have a stronger effect on mental well-being than measured biodiversity (Cameron et al, 2020;Dallimer et al, 2012;Farris et al, 2024;Rozario et al, 2024;Schebella et al, 2019;Zumhof, 2019). Indeed, Rozario et al (2024), Farris et al (2024 and Zumhof (2019) only found significant mental wellbeing effects for perceived biodiversity. A more nuanced differentiation between measured and perceived biodiversity is hence needed to understand their respective effects on mental well-being.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is a consensus across studies that green spaces can provide health-promoting effects (Bowler et al, 2010). For example, visits to the forest directly increase mental health and well-being (Rozario et al, 2024), while indirectly fostering physical health since forests can buffer heat stress (Gillerot et al, 2022; 2024) or improve air quality (Smith et al, 2013; Steinparzer et al, 2022). However, the potential incremental value of biodiversity of such green spaces to health is less understood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fact, studies also differ in how biodiversity is conceptualised: measured or perceived (Marselle et al, 2021). A proxy measure of measured biodiversity, perceived biodiversity refers to subjective estimations of the biodiversity present in an environment (Dallimer et al, 2012; Fuller et al, 2007; Rozario et al, 2024). Lately, there has been a growing interest in establishing the link between measured and perceived biodiversity to determine the accuracy of this proxy measure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Perceived biodiversity: is what we measure also what we see and hear?

Rozario,

Shaw,

Marselle

et al. 2024

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Abstract1. Biodiversity is crucial for human health and well-being. Perceived biodiversity - people’s subjective experience of biodiversity - seems to be particularly relevant for mental well-being.2. Using photographs and audio recordings of forests that varied in levels of species richness, we conducted two sorting studies to assess how people perceive visual and acoustic diversity and whether their perceptions align with measured tree and bird species richness (‘actual diversity’). Per study, 48 participants were asked to sort the stimuli according to any similarity-based sorting criteria they liked (‘open sorts’) and perceived diversity (‘closed sorts’).3. The main perceived visual forest characteristics identified by participants in the open visual sorts were vegetation density, light conditions, forest structural attributes and colours. The main perceived acoustic forest characteristics identified in the open acoustic sorts comprised bird song characteristics, physical properties such as volume, references to the time of day or seasonality and evoked emotions.4. Perceived visual and acoustic diversity were significantly correlated with actual tree and bird species richness, respectively. Notably, the relationship was twice as strong for the acoustic sense. The acoustic sense may thus be crucial to obtain a more thorough understanding of perceived biodiversity.5. We further computed several visual and acoustic diversity indices from the photos and audio recordings, e.g. colourfulness or acoustic complexity, and assessed their relevance for perceived and actual diversity. While all acoustic diversity indices were significantly associated with perceived acoustic diversity and bird richness, we could not identify a visual diversity index that captured perceived visual diversity and tree richness.6. Our results suggest that people can perceive species richness. Our identified visual and acoustic forest characteristics may help to better understand perceived diversity and how it differs from actual diversity. We present acoustic diversity indices that quantify aspects of perceived and actual acoustic diversity. These indices may serve as cost-efficient tools to manage and plan greenspaces to promote biodiversity and mental well-being.

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Section: Association Between Perceived and Actual Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%