Mark Whittingham

Why should we bother

with nature?

Your logo here…

Outline of talk

1. Anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity

2. Why does nature matter to humans? Some examples

3. Opportunities to help improve abundance and diversity of wildlife

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Fig. 2. Worldwide extent of human land-use and land-cover change.

Jonathan A. Foley et al. Science 2005;309:570-574

Published by AAAS

How the habitats on planet

earth would look with no

people

Agricultural land-use

based on 1990s

Outline of talk

1. Anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity

2. Why does nature matter to humans? Some examples

3. Opportunities to help improve abundance and diversity of wildlife

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Source of information

from a conference

presentation in 2011 -

http://www.slideshare.

net/3GDR/ellen-taylor-

careware-conference

View [10] -4,

42]-2,

[44]-4,

[45]-3;

[46]-4,

[47]-4,

[48]-3,

[49]-2

Healing environment: A

review of the impact of

physical environmental

factors on users - Huisman

et al. 2012.

What are the mental benefits of interacting with nature?

Keniger et al. (2013) Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health Benefit Description Examples

Psychological well-being Positive effect on mental processes

Increased self-esteem [32,60,61]

Improved mood [58,32]

Reduced anger/frustration [62]

Psychological well-being [13,63,64]

Reduced anxiety [65]

Improved behaviour [15]

Cognitive Positive effect on cognitive ability or

function

Attentional restoration

[12,14,46,66,67]

Reduced mental fatigue [63]

Improved academic performance [68]

Education/learning opportunities

[49,55]

Improved ability to perform tasks [15]

Improved cognitive function in children

[69]

Improved productivity [35,68]

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(a) The rank distribution of the contribution of wild bee species to crop production value in their

biogeographical area. Dominant species, contributing at least 5% of all visits within a given study,

are indicated in blue. Bars indicate 95% confidence intervals. (b) The cumulative number of bee

species known to exist in the countries in which the studies were done, compared with an asymptotic

estimate of the number of species that visit the flowers of the studied crops (Chao1 estimator), and

the number of dominant crop-visiting wild bee species. Lightly dashed lines indicate estimates±s.e.

First, few species are needed to provide ecosystem services, with almost

80% of the crop pollination provided by only 2%of bee species.

Second, the species currently contributing most to pollination service delivery

are generally regionally common species, whereas threatened species

contribute little, particularly in the most agriculturally productive areas. Thus, a

strictly ecosystem-service-based approach to conservation would not

necessitate the conservation of threatened species.

Third, the most important ecosystem-service-providing species are relatively

robust to agricultural intensification, and furthermore can be readily enhanced in

those systems by simple management actions. This suggests that the rarer

species, which are already absent from such systems, would benefit less from

ecosystem-service-based actions than they would from traditional biodiversity

conservation that targets threatened species in the areas where they are found.

Conclusions from Kleijn et al. pollinator study

Outline of talk

1. Anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity

2. Why does nature matter to humans? Some examples

3. Opportunities to help improve abundance and diversity of wildlife

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Urban environments

What you can do to help

• Trees

• Nestboxes

• Wildflower strips (native nectar-rich plant species if possible)

• Bird feeders

• Wild corners

• Ponds

• Plants within offices

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Rural environments

What you can do to help

• Leave good quality habitats alone – if at all possible avoid removal or disturbance of existing high quality habitats such as trees/hedges/natural habitats. Off-setting is better than nothing but habitat recreation is a poor imitation of the original.

• If you are targeting particular organisms provide resources at a scale appropriate for the species

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Rural environments

What you can do to help

• Leave good quality habitats alone – if at all possible avoid removal or disturbance of existing high quality habitats such as trees/hedges/natural habitats. Off-setting is better than nothing but habitat recreation is a poor imitation of the original.

• If you are targeting particular organisms providing resources at a scale appropriate for the species is likely to be more likely to result in success

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If you are targeting particular organisms provide resources at a scale appropriate for the species

• Optimal foraging theory – given two patches of equal use nearest one preferred because less energy needed to get there

• Metapopulation Theory predicts that the more distant the source population the less likely a patch will be colonised.

Site 0061 - Grass Margins

Reference: Whittingham (2007)

Journal of Applied Ecology, 44, 1-5

(and references therein).

Conclusions

• Natural environment linked to both physical and mental well-being in humans

• Nature provides a range of services that benefit humans (economically), such as pollination services

• If we don’t ‘bother with nature’ we damage long-term human prosperity (economically) and detract from our own well-being

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