New research reveals the impact of different species and their traits on
human wellbeing

Date:
June 20, 2023
Source:
University of Kent
Summary:
New research has revealed that well-functioning ecosystems are
crucial to human health and wellbeing, with human-biodiversity
interactions delivering wellbeing gains equating to substantial
healthcare cost- savings, when scaled-up across populations.


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FULL STORY ==========================================================================
New research has revealed for the first time that well-functioning
ecosystems are crucial to human health and wellbeing, with
human-biodiversity interactions delivering wellbeing gains equating to substantial healthcare cost-savings, when scaled-up across populations.

The University of Kent-led study, which is part of the European Research Council-funded project 'Relating Subjective Wellbeing to Biodiversity' (RELATE), set out to understand which components of nature and
biodiversity played a particular role in human wellbeing.

The team, which was led by Kent's Professor Zoe Davies, analysed the
effects of species' traits, based on people's feedback following a
series of workshops, to identify those that generate different types of wellbeing e.g., physical, emotional, cognitive, social, spiritual, and 'global', the latter being akin to 'whole-person health'.

The team found that, in general, the vast majority of species and traits
are beneficial to human wellbeing. They also discovered that each species
may support multiple traits, potentially with different impacts. For
example, the colours of brambles (black, pink, red) are linked to
multiple positive physical, emotional and social wellbeing types,
but their prickly texture generated negative emotional wellbeing. The
numerous traits from across an ecological community can elicit a multitude
of wellbeing responses, illustrating the true complexity of how people
relate to biodiversity.

Professor Davies, a biodiversity conservationist at Kent's Durrell
Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), said: 'While we know
that spending time in natural environments can improve our health and wellbeing, we still need to know more about which species, or traits
of species (such as colours, sounds, smells, textures and behaviours),
deliver these benefits -- and how people's relationships with biodiversity
are both contextually and culturally specific.

Understanding how people experience biodiversity is therefore key to successfully managing biodiversity to facilitate human wellbeing.'
Study co-author, Professor Martin Dallimer, from the School of Earth
and Environment, University of Leeds, said: 'For the first time,
through analysing people's own words and reflections, we are able
to explicitly link that feeling of wellbeing with species and their
traits. How people respond to biodiversity is hugely varied and if
we want people's wellbeing to benefit from spending time in nature,
then it is essential to make sure we are maintaining and restoring
high quality biodiverse spaces for wildlife and for people. Our aim is
that these findings really drive home how important biodiversity is in underpinning wellbeing benefits, particularly to healthcare and public
sectors who include 'spending time in nature' as an element of mental
health and wellbeing.' Dr Jessica Fisher, also from DICE, added: 'By
starting to comprehend how people experience biodiversity, we can begin
to manage our natural environments for both biodiversity conservation
and human health. Even small improvements in wellbeing at an individual
level could scale up to substantial healthcare cost savings across an
entire country. Our approach can be used to create better- tailored
public health interventions or architectural/landscape designs by, for
example, maximising the likelihood of people having interactions with
certain species and their traits. Critically, as each additional species
in an ecological community supports additional traits, maintaining or
enhancing biodiversity will be key to delivering human wellbeing.'
* RELATED_TOPICS
o Health_&_Medicine
# Health_Policy # Today's_Healthcare # Workplace_Health
o Mind_&_Brain
# Autism # Behavior # Racial_Issues
o Plants_&_Animals
# Nature # Ecology_Research # Endangered_Animals
o Earth_&_Climate
# Ecology # Biodiversity # Environmental_Awareness
* RELATED_TERMS
o Happiness o Biodiversity o Health_science o Epidemiology
o Psychologist o Marine_conservation o Eutrophication o
Vulvovaginal_health

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Kent. Original written
by Gary Hughes.

Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. J. C. Fisher, M. Dallimer, K. N. Irvine, S. G. Aizlewood,
G. E. Austen,
R. D. Fish, P. M. King, Z. G. Davies. Human well-being
responses to species' traits. Nature Sustainability, 2023; DOI:
10.1038/s41893-023- 01151-3 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230620113805.htm

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