Speaker
Description
Cultural ecosystem services (CES) – one of the key categories of ecosystem services – are often overlooked in research and management. Trees contribute to the provisioning of a wide range of CES, e.g. by enhancing the aesthetic value of landscapes or supporting the cultural identity of people to nature. Despite the clear contribution of trees to CES, research on how individual tree species contribute to these services remains limited.
One major challenge in assessing cultural ecosystem services (CES) lies in the difficulty of obtaining objective and comprehensive data. Therefore, we constructed an indicator-based approach which comprises different methods of collecting tree species related data: 1.) We used text analyses of school books, hiking tour descriptions, newspapers and literature, 2.) we scraped social media platforms like reddit, flickr and youtube or knowledge databases like Wikipedia or WebOfScience 3.) we compiled data of natural monuments including trees, 4.) we carried out two surveys asking people about their favorite tree species or the aesthetic value of trees and 5.) We compiled data from tree nurseries about the price and cultivars of different tree species. Focusing on native and selected “promising” introduced tree species in Germany, we analyze the dimensionality of these indicators and investigate the presence of trade-offs and synergies.
First preliminary results show that the indicators span a multidimensional space which might be categorized in different groups or services. Some tree species have an overall high score in each service compared to other tree species. However, most species vary in their amplitude of contributing to different services. In general, native and broadleaved species contribute more to the provisioning of CES than non-native and needle-leaved species. Further results will be evaluated by the time of presentation.
With our research, we contribute to a better understanding of CES at the tree species level, which need to be considered in forest and urban management.
| Status Group | Doctoral Researcher |
|---|---|
| Poster Presentation Option | Yes, I’m willing to present as a poster. |
