Cultural Ecosystem Services Research Articles

The Synergistic Structure and Potential Development for Sustainable Ecosystem Services in Urban Areas along the Grand Canal: A Case Study of the Wuxi Segment

The Grand Canal possesses a unique ecosystem as one of the world cultural heritage sites. However, its ecological roles and services have been underemphasized in heritage conservation efforts, leading to environmental pollution and the degradation of its heritage value, especially in the highly urbanized southern Jiangsu section downstream. This study examines the synergy between regulating ecosystem services (RESs) and cultural ecosystem services (CESs) along the highly urbanized Wuxi section of the Grand Canal, as well as the environmental drivers influencing this relationship. The findings reveal that the synergy between CESs and RESs does not occur at the urban–rural interface but rather in areas 4-6 km away from the Central Business District (CBD). Certain drivers, such as floor area ratio (FAR) and plot ratio (PR), enhance both RES and CES within specific sections. Beyond riparian green belts, various low-density, dispersed, and well-vegetated lands could serve as significant contributors to future ecosystem service (ES) synergy. These conclusions further elucidate the spatial distribution of the heritage cultural services and other ES synergy along the Grand Canal, providing scientific support for broader improvements guiding the sustainable co-development in similar urbanized areas.

Technological features of cultural ecosystem services assessment

The benefits that city residents receive from green spaces related to maintaining their health are a group of cultural ecosystem services (CES). To avoid subjectivity in the assessment of CES, there is a methodology based on determining the effectiveness of green spaces in providing them. Currently, there is no technological scheme for assessing the CES available to urban planners. Accordingly, the purpose of the paper is to highlight the technological features of the CES assessment. Methodologically, the work consists in creating a geodatabase (DB) on the state of green spaces and anthropogenic pressure on them. All the calculation indicators proposed in the methodology should be included in the database as attributes, and their calculation should be performed as working scenarios documented in the form of automated calculation models, etc. The technology is based on QGIS/SAGA spatial analysis tools (QGIS version 3.32.1-Lima), which contains the necessary basic geoprocessing algorithms and modules for calculating the CES. The technology for estimating CES is presented in the Model_CES. The functioning of the Model_CES depends on the amount and quality of input data. As input data, the database includes information on: urban green spaces; vegetation; landscapes; areas with multi-age urban development; local areas of urban population concentration; survey statistics, etc. Attribute information is the basis for the correct operation of the Model_CES algorithms, in particular, the calculation of parameters by which it is proposed to assess the volume of CES. Adequate to the parameters, a file database in the GeoPackage format was formed in accordance with the standards of the Open Geospatial Consortium - Model_CES, which contains the input data sets: tabular: "survey_all"; vector: "Vegetation", "BGI", "local_district", "hollow", "age_consruct". Technological procedures and algorithm for calculating CES volumes and risks of their loss in Model_CES form calculation blocks: 1. a block for determining the potential of green spaces in providing CES; 2. a block for determining the effectiveness of the green space in providing CES - the real supply of CES; 3. a block for calculating the volume of ecosystem services and the risks of their loss; 4. a block for calculating the score of alternative availability of the green space. As a result, the proposed algorithm produces the output geodataset "BGI_CES". After the implementation of the technology, this dataset contains attribute information about each green space, in particular, their ability to provide cultural ecosystem services, efficiency in providing CES, the volume of CES and the risks of their loss. Thus, the paper solves the scientific task of creating an assessment technology that meets the following requirements: it is suitable for processing information that is spatially distributed; it is focused on the availability of uncertain and often limited data; it is available for use by specialists of design and other institutions that may be limited in data. The presented technology can be used in urban planning practice as a tool for improving the quality of urban green spaces, their sustainable development and providing citizens with the maximum amount of CES.

Public perception of cultural ecosystem services in historic districts based on biterm topic model.

Historic districts are integral components of urban space, possessing diverse ecosystems that can offer various cultural services to the public. Urbanization and tourism development have led to the degradation of the ecological landscapes within historic districts, impacting sustainable development. Incorporating Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) into the environmental research of historic districts can meet people's spiritual needs, enhance intangible benefits for humanity, and promote the conservation of the ecological environment within historic districts. Therefore, this study conducted perceptual quantification research on CES in four typical historic districts in Fuzhou City, crawling the online comment data through Python, mined its potential themes using Biterm Topic Model (BTM), and extracted and categorized the indicators of CES of historic districts by combining with expert consultation; meanwhile, the satisfaction of CES of historic districts is further explored with the help of two methods, namely, sentiment analysis and Importance-Performance analysis (IPA), and summarized the public perception of CES of historic districts. The results of the study show that: (1) the dimensions of public perception of CES in urban historic districts include Cultural Heritage, Leisure Tourism, Aesthetic Enjoyment, Spiritual Fulfillment, Inspiration, and Science Education six indicators, of which Leisure Tourism is most easily perceived by the public, but its satisfaction is not high; (2) the public's perception of positive emotions towards the CES of historic districts in Fuzhou is greater than negative emotions, with positive emotions accounting for 80.61%; (3) the public's overall satisfaction with the CES of Fuzhou's historic districts is high, and according to the final analysis results of the IPA, the four historic districts of Fuzhou are respectively proposed to improve the opinions. Based on big data, this study explores the public perception characteristics of CES in Fuzhou historic districts to promote its sustainable development and improve public well-being, which is of great significance to protecting the ecological environment of historic districts and improving the quality of cultural services.

Exploring the relationship between cultural ecosystem services and human well-being of Qiandao Lake in China: insights from tourists and residents

Abstract Landscapes of lakes have a significant impact on people's perceptions of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES), as well as on their overall sense of well-being. However, there is limited understanding of how best to manage land landscapes and how different approaches influence these perceptions. To explore these questions, a case study of China's Qiandao Lake was conducted, using a survey of 416 tourists and residents based on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) framework. The relationship between CES and Human Well-Being (HWB) was examined using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), followed by the application of the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) method to identify which aspects should be targeted in management strategies. The results revealed several key findings. Firstly, there were significant differences in satisfaction with CES between tourists and residents. Tourists showed higher satisfaction levels in spiritual service, aesthetic service, inspiration, and education and science aspects. In contrast, residents prioritized cultural heritage and sense of place, indicating a deeper connection to the cultural and historical elements of their environment. Secondly, age, education, and income levels played important roles in shaping perceptions of CES. Thirdly, the study underscored the impact of CES on HWB, with aesthetic service having the greatest influence on tourists' HWB, and spiritual service having the most impact on residents' HWB. Lastly, using the IPA model, indicators with low satisfaction but high importance were identified, suggesting areas for improvement, particularly in cultural integration and unique environmental features. These research findings provide scientific and theoretical support for the management and landscape planning of lake ecosystems.

Re-visit project success: evaluation of visitor perspectives in the Sungai Melaka flood mitigation project

Purpose This interdisciplinary study re-evaluates the Sungai Melaka flood mitigation project’s impact on community success in Malaysia’s UNESCO World Heritage site, broadening the definition of success considering historical and cultural significance. This study aims to revisit success metrics, focusing on the project’s influence on people’s interactions, cultural well-being, social cohesion and heritage preservation. Design/methodology/approach This study explored visitors’ reviews of their experience visiting Sungai Melaka in several data collection stages. The first data collection involved a Web survey posted on Facebook to capture diverse perspectives of the population and grasp the core strand of knowledge to focus on the second data collection, the questionnaire. The final stage involved interviews to generate rich qualitative data. Findings The findings of this study revealed that the impact exceeded tangible outcomes, as the project impacted people’s interactions and practices. This research assesses cultural benefits, incorporating these indicators into evaluating cultural ecosystem services by capturing local visitors’ and communities’ perceptions, preferences and behaviours. The findings found that other project success attributes include identities, capabilities and experience, further defining learning, health, economics, connection to nature and symbolism. Originality/value This research explores the meaning of project success beyond the traditional metrics by capturing success from the users’ perspectives and people’s interaction and their impact on culture and well-being. The cultural ecosystem services framework used in this study is applied to explore the interactions between people and the facility and its effect on the people.

Measuring heterogeneous preferences for the preservation of prime farmland with and without agrivoltaics

This study addresses a gap in cultural ecosystem service (CES) assessment of prime farmland located in peri-urban areas by presenting results from a choice experiment recently conducted in Utah’s Wasatch Front region. The choice experiment was designed to account for heterogeneous effects associated with a wide array of socio-demographic and attitudinal characteristics on household preferences for farmland preservation, including farmland used for the joint production of solar power and agricultural products. We apply a mixed-logit model to our data that controls for preference heterogeneity among Wasatch Front households along two dimensions – at the individual household level and according to different household types. We find that the typical household is willing to pay a non-trivial annual fee to preserve the region’s existing peri-urban farmland, and to a lesser extent is willing to pay for agrivoltaics on that land. We also find some evidence of preference heterogeneity among different types of households for farmland preservation and agrivoltaics; heterogeneity based upon traditional socio-demographic characteristics such as household income and location, as well as unique attitudinal differences related to how households view themselves in relation to agriculture, farmland preservation, and the extent to which taxation is an appropriate mechanism to fund local public goods. These findings can serve as crucial components of broader land-use studies designed to account for the full range of agri-environmental ecosystem services.

A simple method for mapping winter recreational fishing ecosystem services supply in lakes. A contribution to mapping freshwater ecosystem services

Although urban areas negatively impact the environment, they supply a wide range of ecosystem services (ES), mainly cultural ones. Recreation near urban green areas is widespread, including fishing. In northern latitudes, during the winter, lakes are frozen, and several urban dwellers practice ice fishing. Although this activity is well known, no attempts were made to assess and map winter recreational fishery ES supply in lakes. In this work, we developed a methodology to map this ES, taking an urban lake in Vilnius (Lithuania) as an example. A standardized protocol was developed using an unmanned aerial vehicle (proximal sensing), further georeferencing and correcting the gathered images, vectorizing the fishing ice holes, and mapping them using two different methods: Kernel and Point Density. The method developed in this work can be applied in northern areas to identify recreational fishing ES during the winter.•A novel method was developed to map winter recreational fishery ES supply in lakes;•High-resolution images were taken from an unmanned aerial vehicle to identify fishing ice holes in an urban lake.•The method maps a cultural ES, which is trendy in northern latitudes.

Estimating Economic and Livelihood Values of the World’s Largest Mangrove Forest (Sundarbans): A Meta-Analysis

We explored the state of the art economic and livelihood valuation of ecosystem services (ES) in the Sundarbans mangroves, including a comparative analysis between the Bangladesh and Indian parts of the region. We identified 145 values from 26 studies to estimate the Sundarbans’ economic and livelihood values. The number of ES valuation studies of the Sundarbans is scant, and it has gradually increased over time, focusing mainly on the estimation of provisioning ES (66.2%), followed by regulating and maintenance (25.5%), and cultural (8.3%) ES. However, recently, attention has been paid to estimation, regulating and maintenance, and cultural ES. The number of studies on ES was higher for the Bangladesh (73%) part of the Sundarbans than the Indian (27%) one. The estimated economic values of the Sundarbans’ provisioning, regulating and maintenance, and cultural ES were US $ 713.30 ha−1 yr−1, US $ 2584.46 ha−1 yr−1, and US $ 151.88 ha−1 yr−1, respectively. Except for cultural ES, the identified values for the other two ES categories were about 1.5 to 2.5 times higher for the Bangladesh Sundarbans compared to the Indian ones. The results of the meta-regression model showed that the estimated economic and livelihood values of ES are affected by the associated variables (e.g., type of ES, valuation methods, study area, population, and GDP). Our study also identified some remarkable gaps and limitations in the economic and livelihood valuation of the ES of the Sundarbans, highlighting the need for further research to find out the values of all ES to help with policy decision-making.

Revealing the supply-demand relationship of urban cultural ecosystem services: The combination of open-source spatial model and topic model

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) are of significant interest due to their effectiveness in assessing the impact of ecosystem degradation on human well-being. The evaluation of spatial coordination between the supply and demand of urban CES is crucial for guiding the sustainable development of urban areas. However, current research and survey methods are time-consuming and laborious, lacking in full integration of beneficiary opinions, and insufficient in examining multiple CES in an integrated manner. In this study, we have developed a novel framework that integrates an investigation-driven approach with a natural language processing topic model to assess the supply and demand of CES and their spatial correspondence. Using the main urban area of Xi'an as a case study, we analyzed the spatial coherence of supply and demand including aesthetic, cultural, educational, recreational, and spiritual services. Our findings demonstrate that the fusion of multiple models can effectively evaluate the CES supply from a natural perspective of nature and the demand for CES from a beneficiary perspective. High-supply areas for CES are concentrated in the center region of the study area and in proximity to roads and rivers. Aesthetic service supply was higher than that of other service types, followed by recreational and spiritual services supply. Demand is notably high in the city's hinterland, with substantial interest in recreational and aesthetic services. We observed mismatches between supply and demand across service categories ranging from 33.58% to 67.64%, with supply exceeding demand in most regions. Therefore, tailored measures should be implemented to address the supply and demand mismatch of CES based on local conditions. Our research introduces a new technical tool for analyzing the supply-demand matching relationship of CES and establishes a theoretical foundation for sustainable urban management.

Public perceptions towards urban horticulture in front-yard greenhouses: Unveiling ecosystem services and practices for sustainable and resilient city

In the pursuit of sustainability and resilience, urban horticulture holds immense promise for cities. This paper delves into the captivating realm of urban horticulture preferences in Iran, unraveling the factors that shape individuals' inclinations. The results highlight the influence of greenhouse design on urban horticulture preferences. Urban dwellers prioritize cultural ecosystem services over regulating and provisioning services when engaging in urban horticulture activities. Anticipated ecosystem services differ among various socio-demographic groups. Different greenhouse elements evoke distinct perceptions of ecosystem services. However, certain greenhouses can improve the overall perception of ecosystem services due to the strong correlations between different types of services.

Integrating spatial patterns and driving factors of cultural ecosystem services into territorial spatial governance: A case study of the Horqin Sandy Land with multi-ethnic settlements

Although the spatial patterns of cultural ecosystem services (CES) are often considered in land use management, there is a noticeable disparity in research coverage compared to biophysical ecosystem services (BES). Moreover, there is a lack of research focusing on human perceptions of CES. To address this gap, this study proposed a CES-BES framework that integrates spatial patterns, driving factors of CES, and their interactions with BES, based on the general framework of social and ecological systems. To alleviate the dual pressures of ecological degradation and cultural preservation, this study utilized the constructed CES-BES framework to offer land use recommendations aimed at promoting sustainable development in the Horqin Sandy Land. CES and BES were quantified through a combination of questionnaire surveys, SolVES model and process modeling, including aesthetic, biodiversity, cultural, economic, future, and historical values, as well as net primary productivity, crop production, wind protection, and sand fixation. The results revealed that CES in the Horqin Sandy Land exhibited a discernible pattern of "high in the west and low in the east." Notably, the factors perceived by respondents exerted a more substantial influence on CES than non-perceptual factors. Female respondents showed relatively lower sensitivity to CES overall, but higher sensitivity to biodiversity. Han respondents tended to prioritize biodiversity, while Mongolian respondents were more sensitive to cultural and historical values. Herders exhibited higher sensitivity to biodiversity, while respondents from other occupations showed higher sensitivity to cultural and future values. The influence of land use, topography, and accessibility on different CES was generally similar. All CES showed a positive correlation with elevation, slope, and distance to water, while they showed a negative correlation with distance to roads. Based on the results, the Horqin Sandy Land has been divided into five regions, with development recommendations provided for each region to ensure sustainable development. This study provides a novel perspective and methodological framework for CES supporting territorial spatial governance and land use management, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of CES.

Urban sacred forests support human well-being through cultural ecosystem services

PurposeSacred forests are biocultural landscapes deeply rooted in centuries-old traditions of spiritual veneration. These sacred sites, including shrines, temple forests churches and graveyards, have historically been significant reservoirs of traditional resource management practices underpinned by spiritual reverence. However, despite their cultural and ecological importance, the cultural ecosystem services inherent to these sacred forests remain unexplored, particularly in urban settings.Design/methodology/approachThis study focused on six sacred sites within Kanazawa City, Japan, using a meticulous face-to-face survey with 342 participants. We collected data on the extent of forest utilisation, the breadth of activities engaged in by visitors and their holistic appraisal of the rendered cultural ecosystem services. The findings illustrate the multifaceted benefits of urban sacred forests, encompassing participation in religious ceremonies, cultural events and festivals, complemented by educational programming that elucidates the historical and traditional underpinnings of the shrines and their surrounding communities.FindingsIt has been observed that urban forests have a crucial role in providing spiritual and communal connectivity, preserving traditional heritage, offering vital aesthetic values as green spaces and making visitors connected with nature while they are in the urban landscape. However, a concerning trend has emerged, as the younger demographic appears to lack interest in participating in the stewardship and cultural activities associated with these biocultural landscapes. Community engagement strategies must be strengthened, conservation measures should be implemented and cultural awareness programs need to be established to ensure the perpetuation and appreciation of these valuable urban sacred forests.Originality/valueThis study provides original perspectives on the measurable cultural ecosystem services and intangible values associated with urban sacred forests using the sacred forests in Kanazawa City, Japan. Our research illuminates the various advantages that visitors derive by examining the intersection of spiritual traditions, resource management practices and cultural significance, which has been relatively unexplored. The present study provides a significant basis for establishing initiatives that seek to promote the cultivation of respect and responsibility towards urban sacred forests.

Nature in urban green spaces: Main attractor or nice background? Drivers and dynamics of cultural ecosystem services provision

Urban parks and forests are important providers of cultural ecosystem services (CES) for the majority of the global population. Data from diverse sources are needed to reflect both ecological and social aspects of CES delivery in these areas. Understanding and disentangling this complex relationship is crucial to managing urban green spaces (UGS) in a way that maximizes users’ cultural benefits, and does not threaten the ecosystem and its functions. This paper provides a multidimensional analysis of CES delivery in parks and forests located along the urban–peri-urban axis in Warsaw, Poland. We analyzed the content of photographs posted on Instagram to identify which UGS elements attract the attention of users. We also examined whether the pattern of CES delivery was a function of the naturalness and location of the park or forest, and analyzed the factors that influence weekly and seasonal patterns of CES delivery. Although our study focused on areas where natural elements dominate, only around a quarter of photographs featured plants, water, or wild animals. Nature typically appeared as the background, while the foreground was occupied by people and their activities. Consequently, recreational services dominated over aesthetic experience; at the same time, it proved to be very difficult to identify educational services from our dataset. Air temperature, and the color of vegetation resulting from phenological changes were the most important drivers of CES delivery. We found that both the dynamics and character of CES delivery varied depending on the character of the area, and its location. Finally, delivery patterns were similar in semi-wild urban parks and outer city forests.

Exploring the urban consumers’ experience and the influencing factors in berry-picking activities in China

ABSTRACT Berries hold a unique appeal, stemming from their natural aspect and the embedded cultural ecosystem services they can offer. While extensive studies have examined rural berry collectors, there is a gap of research on the engagement of urban consumers in berry-picking activities, particularly in emerging markets. This study addresses this gap by investigating the experience, consumer motivations, and other influential factors of urban consumers engaging in berry-picking activities in selected municipalities in China. Drawing on in-depth interviews with urban consumers involved in berry-picking and the thematic analysis, this research revealed three berry-picking patterns, including wild picking, pure commercial picking (U-pick), commercial picking with extra services (Pick and Plus). It identified key factors influencing urban consumer experience, namely consumer motivations, social media marketing, convenience, and service capability. It explored the challenges confronting individual berry farmers. The results highlighted the cultural and social significance of berry-picking activities, as well as the service potential of fresh berries as territorial products to bridge urban-rural divides. The research contributes up-to-date insights to the broader discourse on the cultural and provisioning ecosystem services offered by berries, shedding light on the intricate interplay among urban consumers, fresh berries, rural berry farmers and other relevant stakeholders.

Supply and demand of ecosystem services of urban green spaces in deprived areas: Perceptions from Kumasi, Ghana

Urban green spaces (UGS) contribute to human health and wellbeing. However, few studies have focused on cities in the Global South, mainly examining them on a citywide scale without considering deprived areas where residents lack basic facilities and sufficient income. Consequently, there is limited understanding of the relationship between the availability of UGS and associated ecosystem services (ES), and what is actually demanded for by residents in such deprived areas. Therefore, this study aims to assess (i) the perceived supply and (ii) the perceived demand for ES of UGS in selected deprived urban areas; and (iii) to determine the potential gap(s) between these perceived supply and demand aspects. A mixed-method approach was adopted for the study, incorporating GIS methods, household surveys, and key informant interviews. As case studies, the study was conducted in two deprived areas in Kumasi, Ghana – Dakodwom and Ayigya Zongo. The findings reveal that land scarcity and encroachment have led to a limited supply of UGS in these areas. Nevertheless, residents appreciate the few available UGS and ES, demonstrating adaptation to their limited resources. They particularly highlighted the cultural ES provided by these UGS. The high demand for these services, surpassing their supply, shows significant gaps, emphasising the need for comprehensive urban planning and management decisions. Such decisions should involve all stakeholders and be underpinned by effective legislative support.

Ocean economic and cultural benefit perceptions as stakeholders' constraints for supporting conservation policies: A multi-national investigation

Given the vastness and interconnectedness of the ocean, marine conservation requires international treaties, especially after the High Seas Treaty was signed. However, most international marine conservation treaties do not have enforcement mechanisms and leave the fulfillment of obligations to the States’ responsibility. As States’ monitoring, managing, and enforcing capacity is limited, including stakeholders in policy-making and -implementing processes is crucial. Although some multi-national studies have been conducted to examine predictors of stakeholders’ support for conservation management and valuations of ecosystem services, few have focused on how their perceived most crucial economic and cultural benefits of their countries’ oceans are associated with their support level for policies focused on ocean preservation. Thus, the current study aims to fill this gap by employing the Bayesian Mindsponge Framework (BMF) analytics on a dataset of 709 stakeholders from 42 countries, a part of the MaCoBioS project funded by the European Commission H2020. We found that stakeholders’ considerations of the ocean’s provisioning (or economic) and cultural ecosystem services as their countries’ most vital benefits are generally negatively associated with the policy support level. Regarding economic aspects, stakeholders considering transportation and shipping, renewable energy generation, and oil and gas provision as the most crucial benefits their countries’ oceans provide tend to give less support for policies focusing on ocean preservation. For cultural aspects, perceiving recreation and tourism, aesthetic pleasure, mental health and well-being support, and sense of identity provision as the most important benefits provided by the country’s ocean are negatively associated with the policy support level. These findings provide preliminary evidence on the stakeholders’ psychological constraints to support marine conservation-focused policies, which can be insights that might explain why international treaties about environmental and maritime issues mostly failed to produce their intended effects and warn of the risks and challenges to enacting marine protection policies in the high seas effectively. Recommendations for improving the effective management of multi-use marine space and building the eco-surplus among stakeholders are also provided to reduce the perceived competing interests among stakeholders.

Assessing public perceptions of the cultural ecosystem services waterfront spaces provide along the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China, in support of urban waterfront planning and design

Assessing public perceptions of the cultural ecosystem services waterfront spaces provide along the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China, in support of urban waterfront planning and design

Extracting sensory experiences and cultural ecosystem services from actively crowdsourced descriptions of everyday lived landscapes

ABSTRACT What cultural ecosystem services (CES) do people perceive in their immediate surroundings, and what sensory experiences are linked to these ecosystem services? And how are these CES and experiences expressed in natural language? In this study, we used data generated through a gamified application called Window Expeditions, where people uploaded short descriptions of landscapes they were able to experience through their windows during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used a combination of annotation, close reading and distant reading using natural language processing and graph analysis to extract CES and sensory experiences and link these to biophysical landscape elements. In total, 272 users contributed 373 descriptions in English across more than 40 countries. Of the cultural ecosystem services, recreation was the most prominently described, followed by heritage, identity and tranquility. Descriptions of sensory experiences focused on the visual but also included auditory experiences and touch and feel. Sensory experiences and cultural ecosystem services varied according to biophysical landscape elements, with, for example, animals being more associated with sound and touch/feel and heritage being more associated with moving objects and the built environment. Sentiments also varied across the senses, with the visual being more strongly associated with positive experiences than other senses. This study showed how a hybrid approach combining manual analysis and natural language processing can be productively applied to landscape descriptions generated by members of the public, and how CES on everyday lived landscapes can be extracted from such data sources.

Exploring simple ways to avoid collecting highly 137Cs-contaminated Aralia elata buds for the revival of local wild vegetable cultures.

Collection and cooking of wild vegetables have provided seasonal enjoyments for Japanese local people as provisioning and cultural ecosystem services. However, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in March 2011 caused extensive radiocesium contamination of wild vegetables. Restrictions on commercial shipments of wild vegetables have been in place for the last 10 years. Some species, including buds of Aralia elata, are currently showing radiocesium concentrations both above and below the Japanese reference level for food (100 Bq/kg), implying that there are factors decreasing and increasing the 137Cs concentration. Here, we evaluated easy-to-measure environmental variables (dose rate at the soil surface, organic soil layer thickness, slope steepness, and presence/absence of decontamination practices) and the 137Cs concentrations of 40 A. elata buds at 38 locations in Fukushima Prefecture to provide helpful information on avoiding collecting highly contaminated buds. The 137Cs concentrations in A. elata buds ranged from 1 to 6,280 Bq/kg fresh weight and increased significantly with increases in the dose rate at the soil surface (0.10-6.50 μSv/h). Meanwhile, the 137Cs concentration in A. elata buds were not reduced by decontamination practices. These findings suggest that measuring the latest dose rate at the soil surface at the base of A. elata plants is a helpful way to avoid collecting buds with higher 137Cs concentrations and aid in the management of species in polluted regions.

Recreation and its synergies and trade-offs with other ecosystem services of Alpine and pre-Alpine grasslands

Alpine and pre-Alpine grasslands provide numerous ecosystem services including provisioning services (e.g. fodder production), regulating services (e.g. soil erosion reduction), and cultural services (e.g. recreation). While intensively managed grasslands specifically target the production of fodder, more extensively used grasslands are known for being hotspots of biodiversity. However, there is a need to better understand the relationship among the supply of ecosystem services, specifically regarding the use of grasslands for cultural ecosystem services such as recreation. In this study, we investigated the synergies and trade-offs of ecosystem services and analyzed underlying variables related to the recreational use of grasslands. We investigated the supply of recreation (indicated by Photo-User-Days from geo-tagged photos on grasslands), fodder production (indicated by yield), and regulating and habitat ecosystem services (indicated by agri-environmental payments), and analyzed their relationship to management-related variables with a Redundancy Analysis. To better explain the recreational use of grasslands, we further analyzed how environmental and infrastructural features influence the occurrence of Photo-User-Days with a hurdle regression. Finally, we conducted spatial analyses to understand the distribution of Photo-User-Days in space. We found a weak but significant negative relationship between Photo-User-Days and yield, which implies that people slightly prefer extensive grassland to intensive grassland for recreation. Our results also show that agri-environmental schemes targeted towards extensive grassland management can positively influence the recreational use. Other factors, such as proximity to touristic features (e.g. castles), presence of infrastructural features (e.g. cable cars), and environmental characteristics (e.g. low share of croplands, distance to forests), also influenced the spatial distribution of photos on grasslands. The importance of these factors underscores the value of grasslands as a component of the cultural landscape for recreational purposes. These results also suggest that cultural ecosystem services of grasslands can be considered to be co-produced by natural, social, and infrastructural components. The study further discusses limitations to the explanatory power of geo-tagged photo analysis to determine the wide range of cultural ecosystem services of grasslands. We conclude that grasslands play an important role for recreation in (pre-)Alpine landscapes, which can also be effectively supported through targeted agri-environmental payments.