While nature contributes to multiple dimensions of human quality of life, access to nature and its benefits is unequally distributed. We surveyed residents of a French metropolitan area to address three questions: (i) What are the most common barriers to accessing various Nature’s Contributions to People (NCP)? (ii) How do these barriers vary across socio-demographic groups? (iii) How do they relate to nature connectedness and impact quality of life? Most frequent barriers, i.e. low availability or quality of green spaces, lack of time, and crowding, differed across NCP categories. Individuals with lower income, limited physical mobility, living in urban areas, and women reported more barriers. More numerous barriers reduced NCP satisfaction, with repercussions on quality of life. In contrast, nature connectedness directly increased quality of life. Our finding that barriers accumulate for disadvantaged groups, reinforcing social inequities, calls for policies addressing multiple dimensions of access to promote equitable relationships with nature.
Citizen science is an important source of large-scale data on disease vectors, but observations are influenced by both vector availability and human behaviour. We analysed nearly 300 000 citizen science records of two tick species in Finland (Ixodes ricinus and Ixodes persulcatus) using generalized additive models to assess how seasonality, weather, and human activity jointly shape daily tick–human encounter reports. Nonlinear seasonal patterns were observed, with species-specific differences consistent with tick phenology. Human population increased the probability and intensity of reporting, while weekend effects and reduced reporting during rainfall indicated the effects of human activity. Temperature responses differed between species, suggesting that encounter patterns vary according to tick species and environmental conditions. Consequently, citizen science tick observations should not be interpreted as measures of tick abundance alone. Rather, they integrate vector ecology, environmental conditions and human behaviour, allowing elevated encounter risk to be identified based on tick species and weather conditions.
Pressing sustainability issues are rooted in human and earth systems interactions that are difficult to address because of their complex, dynamic, and unpredictable nature. Addressing these social-ecological challenges requires systems-level change, which relies on both direct improvements to natural systems and indirect drivers of change, such as educational levers. We aim to provoke more transdisciplinary work between environmental scientists and educators by bringing together key constructs from social-ecological and learning systems theories. Writing from the perspective of educators and social scientists, our objectives are to encourage ecologists and other environmental scientists to (1) recognize that learning systems are essential elements of social-ecological ecosystems and (2) embrace their role as keystones within these learning systems, uniquely positioned to drive interest in the environment and support transformative learning. We suggest potential areas of intersection between social-ecological and learning systems, seeking leverage points for transformative change toward more sustainable communities.
Human–bear interactions with Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) are increasing in Japan. Examining public perceptions towards bears and bear management is timely with shifting lethal control legislation and rapid spread of negative human–bear interactions throughout Japan. Akita City is one site of recent upsurge in social conflict triggered by increasing human–bear conflict. We used key informant interviews and collected opinion data through semi-structured interviews with 35 Akita City residents; the interviews identified depopulation and rural land abandonment as important perceived social drivers of human–bear conflict and revealed different perspectives between urban and peri-urban residents and possible tensions between Akita and non-Akita residents. Most participants were not opposed to lethal control of bears, although justifying thresholds widely varied. Our results suggest the importance for nuanced consideration of residents’ tolerance and perception in developing conflict mitigation strategies and gaining useful insights from human dimensions examination alongside ecological study of human–wildlife conflict cases.
Across the boreal biome, extensive ditching and stream modification have created widespread networks of artificial waterways. These channels now form a major part of Sweden’s aquatic landscape but remain poorly studied despite their potential ecological role. We surveyed 32 reaches representing natural streams, modified waterways, and ditches on peat and till soils to assess how habitat conditions and benthic macroinvertebrate communities vary across this gradient of naturalness. Natural streams supported higher taxa richness than ditches, while overall diversity and abundance were similar across waterway types. Peat ditches were distinguished by low pH and high organic substrates, whereas till ditches and modified waterways closely resembled natural streams, suggesting ecological convergence over time. Similar to studies done in purely natural systems, catchment area and pH were key predictors of taxa richness in our gradient of naturalness. Our results indicate that modified waterways contain similar biodiversity to natural streams and that soil type is more important for biodiversity than waterway origin, providing a baseline for conservation and restoration planning in managed forest landscapes.
