Perception and appreciation of plant biodiversity among experts and laypeople

[摘要] 1. Plant biodiversity, which is fundamental for the delivery of ecosystem services, isin decline. Yet, knowledge about how plant biodiversity is perceived and appreciated is scarce.2. We studied biologists' and laypeople's perception and appreciation for plant communities that differ in plant biodiversity, using ranges of plant biodiversity knownto affect ecosystem services. We investigate species richness, species turnoverand species evenness. A questionnaire based on photographs displaying artificialplant communities was used.3. Perceived biodiversity was 12% more often congruent with actual biodiversityfor biologists than for laypeople. Species richness was perceived congruentlywith actual species richness by 77% of all respondents, compared with 27% forspecies evenness and 29% for species turnover. Appreciation for the displayedcommunities correlated positively with their actual plant biodiversity, except forspecies turnover. Appreciation always correlated positively with perceived plantbiodiversity and even stronger than with actual plant biodiversity. This was notthe case for species richness, for which perceived and actual biodiversity weremost often congruent.4. Our results suggest that plant biodiversity is perceived most accurately whenchanges in species richness are considered, while changes in species evennessand species turnover are perceived less accurately. The respondents' answers indicate that perceived higher plant biodiversity is appreciated more than perceivedlower plant biodiversity, even when perceived and actual plant biodiversity arenot congruent.5. We corroborate findings that people value plant biodiversity per se. But we alsofind that people largely perceive species evenness and turnover with low accuracy; and that people have low appreciation for these biodiversity dimensionsthat are lesser known but essential to ecosystem functioning. Our finding that biologists have higher accuracy in perceiving biodiversity suggests that biodiversityliteracy is key to increasing people's awareness of changes in plant biodiversity.

[学科分类] 护理学

[关键词] evenness;plant blindness;species richness;turnover;visual assessment