Multiple dimensions of biodiversity drive human interest in tide pool communities.

ABSTRACT: Activities involving observation of wild organisms (e.g. wildlife watching, tidepooling) can provide recreational and learning opportunities, with biologically diverse animal assemblages expected to be more stimulating to humans. In turn, more diverse communities may enhance human interest and facilitate provisioning of cultural services. However, no experimental tests of this biodiversity-interest hypothesis exist to date. We therefore investigated the effects of different dimensions of animal biodiversity (species richness, phyletic richness and functional diversity) on self-reported interest using tide pools as a model system. We performed two experiments by manipulating: (1) the richness of lower (species) and higher taxonomic levels (phyla) in an image based, online survey, and (2) th

SUBMITTER: Fairchild TP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6189033 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature