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Wunderlich AC, Salak B, Hegetschweiler KT, Bauer N, Hunziker M. Impacts of rising COVID-19 incidence and changed working conditions on forest visits in early 2020 of the pandemic: Evidence from Switzerland. FOREST POLICY AND ECONOMICS 2023; 153:102978. [PMID: 37159622 PMCID: PMC10150190 DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2023.102978] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2023] [Accepted: 04/23/2023] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic forced many nations to implement a certain degree of lockdown measures to contain the spread of the virus. It has been reported that recreational visits to forests and green spaces increased in response to the lockdown. In this study, we investigated the effect of the policy-induced changes in working conditions during the lockdown period, as well as the effect of COVID-19 infection rates, on forest visits throughout Switzerland early in the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed data from an online panel survey first conducted one week before the government imposed the lockdown in Switzerland and repeated two weeks after the lockdown began. We use a modeling approach to assess the impact of the home-office and short-time working situation on forest visitation frequency, as well as their effects on the length of visits to the forest. For those who visited the forest both before and during the lockdown, the frequency of forest visits increased during the early lockdown phase considered here, while the duration of visits decreased. According to our model, the opportunity to work from home was a significant driver of the increased frequency of forest visits by this visitor group, while COVID-19 infection rates had no effect on their forest visits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne C Wunderlich
- Social Sciences in Landscape Research Group, Research Unit Economics and Social Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Boris Salak
- Social Sciences in Landscape Research Group, Research Unit Economics and Social Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland & TU Wien, Institute of Urban Design and Landscape Architecture. Research Unit Landscape Architecture and Landscape Planning, Karlsplatz 13, 1040 Vienna, Austria
| | - K Tessa Hegetschweiler
- Social Sciences in Landscape Research Group, Research Unit Economics and Social Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Nicole Bauer
- Social Sciences in Landscape Research Group, Research Unit Economics and Social Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Marcel Hunziker
- Social Sciences in Landscape Research Group, Research Unit Economics and Social Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
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Agyapong EB, Ashiagbor G, Nsor CA, van Leeuwen LM. Urban land transformations and its implication on tree abundance distribution and richness in Kumasi, Ghana. JOURNAL OF URBAN ECOLOGY 2018. [DOI: 10.1093/jue/juy019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Emma Baah Agyapong
- Department of Wildlife & Range Management, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
| | - George Ashiagbor
- Department of Wildlife & Range Management, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
| | - Collins Ayine Nsor
- Department of Ecotourism & Forest Recreation, Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
| | - Louise M van Leeuwen
- Department of Natural Resources, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
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Rusterholz HP, Verhoustraeten C, Baur B. Effects of long-term trampling on the above-ground forest vegetation and soil seed bank at the base of limestone cliffs. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2011; 48:1024-1032. [PMID: 21863373 DOI: 10.1007/s00267-011-9727-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2011] [Accepted: 07/02/2011] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
Exposed limestone cliffs in central Europe harbor a highly divers flora with many rare and endangered species. During the past few decades, there has been increasing recreational use of these cliffs, which has caused local environmental disturbances. Successful restoration strategies hinge on identifying critical limitations. We examined the composition of aboveground forest vegetation and density and species composition of seeds in the soil seed bank at the base of four limestone cliffs in mixed deciduous forests that are intensively disturbed by human trampling and at four undisturbed cliffs in the Jura Mountains in northwestern Switzerland. We found that long-term human trampling reduced total aboveground vegetation cover at the base of cliffs and caused a significant shift in the plant-species composition. Compared with undisturbed cliffs, total seed density was lower in disturbed cliffs. Human trampling also altered the species composition of seeds in the soil seed bank. Seeds of unintentionally introduced, stress-tolerant, and ruderal species dominated the soil seed bank at the base of disturbed cliffs. Our findings indicate that a restoration of degraded cliff bases from the existing soil seed bank would result in a substantial change of the original unique plant composition. Active seed transfer, or seed flux from adjacent undisturbed forest areas, is essential for restoration success.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hans-Peter Rusterholz
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Section of Conservation Biology, University of Basel, St. Johanns-Vorstadt 10, Basel, Switzerland.
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Ellis EC. Anthropogenic transformation of the terrestrial biosphere. PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. SERIES A, MATHEMATICAL, PHYSICAL, AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES 2011; 369:1010-35. [PMID: 21282158 DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2010.0331] [Citation(s) in RCA: 169] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
Human populations and their use of land have transformed most of the terrestrial biosphere into anthropogenic biomes (anthromes), causing a variety of novel ecological patterns and processes to emerge. To assess whether human populations and their use of land have directly altered the terrestrial biosphere sufficiently to indicate that the Earth system has entered a new geological epoch, spatially explicit global estimates of human populations and their use of land were analysed across the Holocene for their potential to induce irreversible novel transformation of the terrestrial biosphere. Human alteration of the terrestrial biosphere has been significant for more than 8000 years. However, only in the past century has the majority of the terrestrial biosphere been transformed into intensively used anthromes with predominantly novel anthropogenic ecological processes. At present, even were human populations to decline substantially or use of land become far more efficient, the current global extent, duration, type and intensity of human transformation of ecosystems have already irreversibly altered the terrestrial biosphere at levels sufficient to leave an unambiguous geological record differing substantially from that of the Holocene or any prior epoch. It remains to be seen whether the anthropogenic biosphere will be sustained and continue to evolve.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erle C Ellis
- Department of Geography and Environmental Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA.
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