Climate change and human development have greatly impacted large varieties of plants and animals. From big to small, no species has been entirely safe from the consequences of our actions.
Pollinators, in particular, have seen a large decline over the past twenty years. As habitat loss has accelerated, climate change has affected historical ranges, and pesticides have become more common.
While most pollinators are quite small, they greatly impact all of us as they help disperse pollen, allowing plants to reproduce.
As land use has contributed to habitat loss for these pollinators, there has been considerable opposition to introducing solar panels and arrays to areas with considerable numbers of these small creatures.
This brings agriculture proponents into an uneasy alliance with ecological activists, as agriculture proponents also don’t want their profits to decline as land is used for a different purpose.
However, a solution to both of these issues can be found in agrivoltaics, which is a promising alternative to single-use solar arrays.
Minnesota is showing an alternative.
Pollinators living alongside solar systems have found significant promise in Minnesota, USA. A 2016 law set up the Habitat Friendly Solar program, which incentives property developers and solar companies to build arrays with benefits for songbirds and pollinators.
This is in stark contrast to solar development in the 2000s. As a result of the high price at the time of solar panels, solar companies sought to cut costs anywhere they could. As a result, in their solar installations, they put in gravel instead of flowers or field grass due to the price being lower.
However, due to new research, solar developers have found that vegetation creates a cooling microclimate that benefits energy efficiency. They have since been putting in clover and other field grasses under and alongside their panels, but even now, they are putting in higher-rising flowers.
Connexus is a solar cooperative that has been operating in Minnesota, and have said that “It started with our headquarters solar array — initially designed to utilize class 5 gravel under and around the panels, we worked with Connexus member Prairie Restorations to design a low-growing, flowering meadow under and around the panels.”
These changes also have other ecological benefits, as some environmental advocates are promoting the planting of the native northern tallgrass prairie, which has declined to represent 1% of the land in the US since European settlement.
This could change the solar industry as a whole.
These changes to how solar arrays are installed represent a significant alliance between solar developers, natural conservation groups, and agriculture advocates.
These changes are a branch of agrivoltaics that advocates combining solar arrays and agriculture. These developments show that agriculture, pollinator habitat restoration, and solar energy are not mutually exclusive.
It is possible to have the best of these worlds combined, and it is, in fact, beneficial to all parties involved. The solar panels provide shade for specific species of plants and animals that are better suited to being out of the sun for part of the time, and the plants enhance solar panel efficiency.
In the transition to solar energy, it’s incredibly important that the development isn’t harmful to existing food production and ecology goals.
We’ve all heard of planting trees to combat climate change. Now, a team in Nova Scotia is working on “reforestation” for the ocean.
Dalhousie University and the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax are managing a project this summer to plant an often overlooked species — eelgrass — in the race to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
To the untrained eye, eelgrass looks like your average seaweed, but project lead Kristina Boerder says it’s much more.
“It’s a bit of a treasure, a secret treasure. Not a lot of people know about it,” said Boerder.
Eelgrass boosts biodiversity along shorelines by providing shelter for young fish, crustaceans and even food for some waterfowl. It also has many benefits for humans.
Eelgrass stores carbon and methane in its root system
“It protects our coasts from erosion. It’s good for water quality. And also it stores our emissions. So it’s a secret weapon in our fight [against] climate change,” she says.
Seagrasses on the whole absorb carbon and methane through photosynthesis and sequester them in their root systems. One study estimates an acre of seagrass can store over 335 kilograms of carbon per year — the equivalent of carbon emitted by a car driving from Yarmouth, N.S. to Dingwall, N.S. eight times.
Researchers are working to see how effective eelgrass is at carbon storage in Nova Scotia specifically.
The group is using different methods of planting eelgrass to see which is most effective.
Its carbon-storing root system also helps moderate levels of acid in the ocean, which are rising due to climate change and damaging the health of some marine life.
But eelgrass meadows are shrinking, according to researchers due to damage from coastal development, pollution, invasive species and some types of fisheries mooring and anchoring practices.
This loss of seagrass meadows is a global phenomenon. One study estimated the world loses up to two football fields worth of seagrass each hour. Boerder says something needs to be done.
Boerder, along with students from Dalhousie and volunteers from the Ecology Action Centre, have spent the summer with snorkels and wetsuits out in the water, working to regenerate this precious plant.
Amy Irvine is a marine biology masters student involved with the project who endures long, muddy, cold days to plant the eelgrass.
“When you see all the trees around you, you recognize how important they are. But then when you come to the ocean, you don’t think about this,” she said, holding up a piece of the eelgrass.
The study
The team’s days are long. Starting at 7 a.m. and going until 6 in the evening.
They meet at Cherry Hill Beach to harvest eelgrass from a lush bed where they suit up, wade in and fill buckets with the green grass.
“This is actually the easiest part of the day,” said Irvine. This area is shallow and warm compared to the area where the eelgrass is transplanted.
The planters swim out, with Boerder following them in a boat. She hands them the grass and they dive down through the cloudy water to plant it.
They are trying different planting methods to see which is most effective.
“We don’t know what works best for Nova Scotian Water. So we’ve got to explore that first,” said Boerder.
The experiment consists of four different methods: planting seeds on their own, planting seeds in burlap sacks, planting sods, or the full plant with its roots, and planting shoots. They’ve planted over 6,000 eelgrass plants using these methods.
When it comes to improving biodiversity, planter Lauren La Porte says she’s already seeing some results.
“Every time we’re snorkeling, we see little critters swimming along in there, we see crabs and lobsters, and those are super beneficial to our local fisheries. ”
Civilian science
Jordy Thomson, the senior marine coordinator for the Ecology Action Centre, is happy to see volunteers coming out to help plant the eelgrass.
“We want to build up public momentum for an interest in conservation of eelgrass as a really critical coastal species for us here in Nova Scotia.”
Thomson says community involvement has been key for the project. People offered up their private land for the group to provide access to ocean beds, and volunteers have been helping collect data on eelgrass by filming from their kayaks.
Many people have also been sending information about eelgrass through the iNaturalist app.
INaturalist is an app that encourages citizen science and the Ecology Action Centre asks people to upload photos of eelgrass beds to the app to help map their distribution and better understand their health throughout the province.
“We really are looking for anybody in Nova Scotia who lives or spends time along the coast to get involved and to send in some photos of eelgrass meadows in their area,” Thomson said.
Eleven stories high in the heart of the City of London, there is a hidden haven for wildlife. Around 159 species of plants are flourishing on the rooftop of Nomura, a Japanese bank. By day, orchids, daisies and wild herbs provide food to 17 species of bees. At night, the bright yellow flowers of mullein plants bloom in the moonlight, tempting London’s moths.
It is here that an orchid thought to be extinct in the UK was recently discovered growing among the roof’s solar panels. The small-flowered tongue orchid – so named because its flowers resemble protruding tongues – has only been found growing wild in the UK once before, in 1989.
It’s still a mystery how the orchids made it onto the roof, though ecologist Mark Patterson, who manages the bank’s 10-year-old rooftop garden, suspects that the flowers’ seeds hitched a ride on winds blowing over from the Sahara.
“Orchid seeds are as small as specks of dust,” he tells The Independent. “So my theory is they blew over before establishing themselves.” On the Friday morning when The Independent visited Nomura’s green roof, he was collecting leaves from the flowers to send to experts at Kew Gardens. “They’re going to analyse the DNA from the samples. That might be able to tell us what region the seeds originated from,” he explains.
A colony of small-flowered tongue orchids (centre and right) were discovered on a London rooftop after not being seen in the UK since 1989. SOURCE: Daisy Dunne
Nomura’s green roof is one of 700 spread across central London, with the capital boasting more such idylls than other parts of the country. According to the Greater London Authority, a “green roof” is a “a roof or deck where vegetation or habitat for wildlife is deliberately established”.
As well as providing a safe space for rare wildlife, building green roofs in cities can offer a host of other benefits, ranging from improving local air quality to helping build resilience against worsening extreme weather events, says Dr Michael Hardman, a senior lecturer in urban geography at the University of Salford.
“There’s clear evidence out there that green roofs can mitigate against things like the urban heat island effect and flood events,” he tells The Independent. “In terms of climate change, they are definitely an important tool.”
The “urban heat island effect” is a term for how cities are typically hotter than rural areas. Major UK cities, such as London, Manchester and Birmingham, can at times be up to 5C hotter than their surrounding rural areas, research shows. The effect is caused by a combination of densely packed buildings and roads, which trap in heat, as well as air pollution, industrial activity and high amounts of energy use by homeowners.
Research shows that the urban heat island effect is likely to intensify in UK cities as the planet continues to warm.
Green roofs can help to tackle urban heat by providing a local cooling service. This is largely because plants naturally absorb water through their roots and later release it into the air as moisture, which has a cooling effect on the surrounding area.
At Nomura’s rooftop garden, this cooling effect is largely enough to allow the bank to cut back on the use of air conditioning in the summer, Mr Patterson says. “If all the buildings in this area had green roofs, it would probably reduce the temperature on a hot day by a degree or two,” he adds.
Tortoiseshell butterflies are one of many insects found on Nomura’s green roof. SOURCE: Mark Patterson
The bank’s green roof also plays a role in reducing flood risk in the city. “Every inch of soil you have on a green roof absorbs five per cent more water, so that’s five per cent less water that’s running off into drains,” he says.
A study conducted in Newcastle in 2016 found that a “city-wide deployment of green roofs” could reduce travel disruption from flooding by around a quarter. The authors of the research say that green roofs, along with more traditional defences such as flood walls, must be part of plans to cope with more extreme downpours.
The need to prepare for worsening heatwaves and floods in the UK is greater than ever. Earlier this month, the UK’s independent climate advisory group, the Climate Change Committee, warned that the country is now less prepared for the climate crisis than it was five years ago as a result of government inaction in the face of rising risks.
Increasing the number of green spaces in cities will be key to helping the country’s urban populations cope with increasing heat and worse floods, according to their assessment.
Despite recognising the benefits of green roofs, the UK is currently behind other countries when it comes to building them, says Dr Hardman.
“We need to look to countries, like Denmark, which have both the financial incentives and the planning incentives,” he says. “In Denmark, if a building’s slope angle is under a certain amount, it’s actually mandatory to put a green roof on. We need to be more innovative with our policies.”
He added that, at present, not enough is being done to ensure that the social benefits of green roofs can be accessed by disadvantaged groups.
“All the green roofs in Manchester that I know of are very inaccessible, they are closed to the public and you need a health and safety person to take you up there,” he says. “To me that’s a huge barrier to green roofs. The social benefits just aren’t there at the moment, as they are for other types of green infrastructure like parks”.
The Pacific Ocean is the deepest and largest ocean on the planet, the ocean is located between a number of continents as depicted by the image below, these include the Australian, Asian, North and South American continents. Interestingly, the Pacific Ocean derives its name from the Latin phrase ‘Mar Pacifico,’ meaning a peaceful sea. The name was coined by the first European explorer to reach the Pacific, Ferdinand Magellan in the early 1520s, after sailing through a patch of calm waters on the ocean.
Source: NeedyFish
The size of the Pacific Ocean
The Pacific covers an estimated area of 165.25 million square kilometers ( 63.8 million square miles), covering about 30% of the earth’s surface. The size of the Pacific exceeds the total expanse of all the world’s seven continents. The Pacific also represents about half of the planet’s total water surface area.
Economic importance
Although its name refers to a calm and peaceful sea, the Pacific is a massive body of water teeming with life. Every year, the Pacific Ocean contributes billions of dollars to different countries across the world through multiple economic activities, as an example fishing from the Pacific contributes over 70% of the world’s catch.
Additionally, the Pacific is a great source of natural resources, including metal, sand and minerals. Even with the large quantities of mineral resources, only a few have been exploited, such as magnesium, bromine, and salt. The ocean also contains large deposits of oil, gas, and petroleum.
The Pacific is responsible for providing some of the key shipping and trade routes globally, including the North and South Pacific routes. The North Pacific route connects North America (specifically the West Coast) to East Asia. In terms of trade volumes per route and distance, the North Pacific route is the longest and the largest compared to other channels. The South Pacific route, on the other hand, interconnects Western Europe, North America, New Zealand, and Australia. Worldtradia released some stats back in 2017 that saw the North Pacific trade route see traffic volumes (number of vessels) of 30.5 million. The next busiest route being the North Atlantic with volumes just over 22.3 million.
The depth of the Pacific
The Pacific is the deepest ocean on earth, with an average depth of 13,000 feet (4,000 meters). Scientifically, the deepest points of any ocean are known as deep trenches. Out of the 20 major trenches worldwide, 17 of them are found in the Pacific, with the Mariana Trench being the deepest of them all. The Challenger Deep (which is the deepest point in the Pacific and on earth) measures at 10,994 meters (or 36,040 feet). In 2012, it took James Cameron, a National Geographic explorer and film producer, 2 hours and 36 minutes to reach the bottom of the Challenger Deep.
The Pacific is shrinking by 1cm a year
Scientists have discovered that the Pacific is shrinking at a rate of 1cm per year due to tectonic plates. Let’s put the academic hat back on and explore the why, tectonic plates are pieces of the earth’s crust and uppermost mantle, commonly referred to as the lithosphere. As an estimate, the plates are around 100 km (62 mi) thick and mainly consist of two types of material: oceanic crust and continental crust. This crust is always in a state of flux i.e. constant motion. The movement of these plates occur at a rate of a few centimetres per year, causing a collision known as subduction. As a result, the Pacific plate pulls away from the North American plate at about 1cm per year, causing the ocean to shrink in the same proportion.
What Is the Pacific Ring of Fire?
The largest volcano on earth is located in the Pacific, with over 75% of the world’s volcanos coming from the ocean’s basin. The volcanoes and earthquakes that originate from the Pacific occur from an area in the ocean known as the Ring of Fire. The occurrence of earthquakes and volcanoes here are as a result of heavy volcanic activity and the movement of tectonic plates. It is reported that over 80% of the world’s tsunamis also occur in the Pacific’s Ring of Fire.
Source: NeedyFish
Islands of the World
There are hundreds of thousands of islands across the world, some of which are yet to be inhabited. Among the endless list of ocean islands found on the planet, the Pacific has the highest number. With about 25,000 islands, the Pacific Island countries have become home to millions of people. This total equates to their being more islands in the pacific than in all the other oceans put together, why? The reason being is because the Pacific experiences the highest volcanic activity compared to all other oceans, thanks to the vigorous movements that occur in the Ring of Fire. Following oceanic crust movements that happen at the floor of the ocean, this can lead to a series of oceanic or volcanic islands being formed.
The El Nino Climate Cycle
El Nino is the Pacific’s climate cycle that impacts weather patterns globally. The pattern consists of unusual warming of the waters on the surface of the Eastern Pacific. El Nino influences local weather, the strength of ocean currents, and temperatures across South America, Australia, and beyond. This cycle has a significant impact on the global climate, and to some extent, can cause some lasting changes. The 2016 El Nino saw severe droughts in Africa and South-East Asia, catastrophic coral bleaching in the Great barrier reef and wildfires in Indonesia and Canada.
Source: NeedyFish
Source: NeedyFish
The La Niña Climate Cycle
The impacts of a La Niña climate cycle tends to be the exact opposite of the impacts of an El Nino Cycle. La Niña represents a period of cooling for the surface ocean waters across the tropical west coast of South America. During a La Niña year, winter temperatures in the US will be cooler than normal in the Northwest and warmer than normal in the Southeast.
The Birthing of Hurricanes
Hurricanes, also known as typhoons when formed over the Pacific, are the most violent storms experienced on earth. Evidence in the past has proven that the Pacific can stir extremely strong hurricanes. Hurricane Patricia, for example, was the strongest Pacific typhoon ever recorded in history, affecting Central America, Texas, and Mexico. Typhoon Nepartak is another Pacific storm that significantly affected Taiwan.
Hurricanes and cyclones are fuelled by warm sea surfaces (the Pacific being warmer than any other ocean on earth). The warmth of the Pacific waters can be persistent for a year, allowing a hurricane to last longer. This is why La Niña and El Nino are never ignored.
Increased marine pollution
Being the largest ocean on earth, the Pacific extends to several continents and a significant number of countries. Consequently, the ocean is more exposed to high levels of pollution. The Pacific is particularly prone to plastic, which comprises over 90% of the visible pollutants and debris covering the ocean. Studies indicate that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (the ocean’s garbage collection site) has grown 100 times bigger than it was 40 years ago. Nuclear waste and ocean dumping have also contributed to marine pollution significantly.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the ocean’s collection of debris (caused by human activity). A lot of plastics are pushed by the ocean currents into floating patches of debris, forming the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). Today, GPGP is the largest plastic accumulation zone in the world’s oceans, covering an estimated area of 8 million square kilometres. The patch is so huge that it is estimated to be 2.3 the size of Texas. There are collective efforts by international organisations and individuals to control GPGP from growing.
Source: NeedyFish
Source: NeedyFish
Overfishing of the Pacific
Overfishing is the primary contributor of decline to aquatic life worldwide. Research shows that large quantities of fish are removed from the Pacific (every year) , far exceeding the rate they are able to reproduce. An estimated 1.6 million pounds (over 725,000 kgs) of fish are removed from the reefs of Pohnpei each year. Generally, over 30% of the species found in the coral reefs of Oceania are threatened with extinction.
In 2013, there was a recorded decline in the population of Pacific bluefin tuna. The Pacific bluefin tuna is one of the rarest fish species found in the Northern Pacific. The same trend has continued to date. In 2018, the value of a Pacific bluefin tuna was ranging at above $320,000. This is due to the continued decline in the Pacific bluefin tuna stocks. Why? The answer is simple, overfishing! And what promotes overfishing? Overfishing can be as a result of the increase in illegal fishing, lack of fishing regulations and increased human activity in the ocean.
Summary
This Ocean is a lifeline to almost everyone on this planet, we therefore, need to respect it. The ocean doesn’t belong to us, we don’t own it, we shouldn’t see it as a trash can!! Instead, humanity should consider ourselves as “stewards”, protecting the ocean and its inhabitants, so it can support future generations of life, both sea life and human life. Our mindset has to change!
Scientists from Australia and Malaysia have found a sugar with many reported health benefits present in the honey produced by five species of stingless bees. The finding could lead to increased interest from consumers.
In a discovery that could create conservation-friendly business opportunities in the Asia Pacific region, scientists from Australia and Malaysia have found a sugar with many reported health benefits present in honey produced by stingless bees.
The researchers tested honey from five stingless bee species—two Australian, two Malaysian and a Brazilian species—and found that up to 85 per cent of their sugar is a rare sugar called trehalulose.
Trehalulose has a low glycaemic index, which means it is good for diabetics. It is also acariogenic, which means it does not cause tooth decay, said associate professor Mary Fletcher, an organic chemist at the University of Queensland and one of the authors of the new study.
This is the first time that trehalulose has been found as a major component in any food. The sugar in stingless bee honey was previously thought to be maltose.
The study validates the wisdom of Indigenous people, who have long known that native stingless bee honey has special health properties, Fletcher said.
The finding is expected to make stingless bee honey more attractive to consumers and lead to increased industry production.
“Stingless bees are kept in small hive structures and propagated by beekeepers, so the collecting of stingless bee honey doesn’t negatively impact on native diversity of these species. In Australia it is already popular for individuals to keep stingless bee hives in their backyard as pets and for pollination,” Fletcher told Eco-Business.
Stingless bee or Meliponini honey sells for around A$200 (US$144) per kilogram (kg), which is costlier than average, and comparable with premium Manuka and Royal Jelly honey, she said.
Stingless bees are much smaller than honeybees and produce smaller quantities of honey. Their honey currently makes up a “very small” percentage of the honey sold worldwide, the bulk of which is from honeybees, said Fletcher.
A way to eradicate poverty
Pollinators are vital to food production, but are on the decline in many parts of the world due to the use of pesticides, pathogens as well as pests.
Even before the study was published, Malaysia had been eyeing the growth of stingless beekeeping due to its potential as a stable and sustainable source of income for its people. Stingless bee honey is called kelulut in Malaysia and is farmed by an estimated 750 to 1,000 people in the Southeast Asian country.
In a 2018 study, Malaysian researchers estimated that stingless beekeeping could potentially generate income of RM5,000 (US$1,193) or more per month for farmers, and help eradicate urban and rural poverty.
“Beekeeping plays a major role in socio-economic development and environmental conservation in Malaysia,” stated the researchers, Dr Mohd Mansor Ismail of Universiti Putra Malaysia and associate professor Wan Iryani Wan Ismail of Universiti Malaysia Terengganu.
“It is an important income-generating activity with high potential for improving incomes especially in the fruits and pineapple plantations and to rural farmers’ bordering tropical forest reserves.”
Dr Mohd Mansor, who is now an industry representative, said beekeeping is promoted in Malaysia as an additional income source for rubber and palm oil smallholders that can keep them out of poverty when prices of the commodities are low. He was not involved in the University of Queensland study.
Stingless bee honey can cost up to RM800 per kg after processing, said Dr Mohd Mansor, who is involved in beekeeping at Mersing Bee Farm in Johor in Malaysia. Unprocessed stingless bee honey is selling for about RM350 per kg, higher than honey from the Apis mellifera honeybee, which is selling at RM200 per kg.
Optimising trehalulose content
Challenges that beekeepers face include competition from fake honey, which is honey adulterated with cheaper substances such as corn syrup, he said.
Stingless beekeepers also experience huge deviation in yield, with some producing up to 1.2 kg per hive per month, while others produce as little as 300 grams per hive per month. This is a challenge that requires more research and better hive management to overcome, he said.
There are over 500 species of stingless bees in the world’s tropical regions including Africa, Asia, Australia, Melanesia and the Americas, said Fletcher.
As the study covered only five species, more research is needed to determine if other stingless bee species also produce trehalulose, she said. The stingless bee species examined were the Tetragonula carbonaria and Tetragonula hockingsi species in Australia,Geniotrigona thoracica and Heterotrigona itama in Malaysia and from Tetragonisca angustula in Brazil.
And while trehalulose has been reported to have antidiabetic properties, which seem to be related to similar claims about stingless bee honey, human trials are needed to validate these antidiabetic claims, she said.
Going forward, Fletcher plans to investigate the conditions that affect the percentage of trehalulose present in the honey. In the study, it ranged from 30 to 85 per cent of the sugar present.
In a new year-long project that began last month, Fletcher and her colleagues will seek to optimise or standardise the trehalulose content of Australian stingless bee honey. The work is funded by AgriFutures Australia—an organisation largely funded by the Australian government—and supported by the Australian Native Bee Association.
Biodiverse nature is particularly beneficial for mental well-being. There is also growing and compelling evidence that contact with diverse microbiomes in the soil and air has a profound effect on depression and anxiety.
Mental health in our cities is an increasingly urgent issue. Rates of disorders such as anxiety and depression are high. Urban design and planning can promote mental health by refocusing on spaces we use in our everyday lives in light of what research tells us about the benefits of exposure to nature and biodiversity.
Mental health issues have many causes. However, the changing and unpredictable elements of our physical and sensory environments have a profound impact on risk, experiences and recovery.
Physical activity is still the mainstay of urban planning efforts to enable healthy behaviours. Mental well-being is then a hoped-for byproduct of opportunities for exercise and social interaction.
Neuroscientific research and tools now allow us to examine more deeply some of the ways in which individuals experience spaces and natural elements. This knowledge can greatly add to, and shift, the priorities and direction of urban design and planning.
What do we mean by ‘nature’?
A large body of research has compellingly shown that “nature” in its many forms and contexts can have direct benefits on mental health. Unfortunately, the extent and diversity of natural habitats in our cities are decreasing rapidly.
Too often “nature” – by way of green space and “POS” (Public Open Space) – is still seen as something separate from other parts of our urban neighbourhoods. Regeneration efforts often focus on large green corridors. But even small patches of genuinely biodiverse nature can re-invite and sustain multitudes of plant and animal species, as urban ecologists have shown.
It has also been widely demonstrated that nature does not effect us in uniform or universal ways. Sometimes it can be confronting or dangerous. That is particularly true if nature is isolated or uninviting, or has unwritten rules around who should be there or what activities are appropriate.
These factors complicate the desire for a “nature pill” to treat urban ills.
We need to be far more specific about what “nature” we are talking about in design and planning to assist with mental health.
Why does biodiversity matter?
The exponential accessibility and affordability of lab and mobile technologies, such as fMRI and EEG measuring brain activity, have vastly widened the scope of studies of mental health and nature. Researchers are able, for example, to analyse responses to images of urban streetscapes versus forests. They can also track people’s perceptions “on the move”.
Research shows us biodiverse nature has particular positive benefit for mental well-being. Multi-sensory elements such as bird or frog sounds or wildflower smells have well-documented beneficial effects on mental restoration, calm and creativity.
Acknowledging the crucial role all these senses play shifts the focus of urban design and planning from visual aesthetics and functional activity to how we experience natural spaces. This is particularly important in ensuring we create places for people of all abilities, mobilities and neurodiversities.
These converging illustrations suggest biodiverse urban nature is a priority for promoting mental health. Our job as designers and planners is therefore to multiply opportunities to interact with these areas in tangible ways.
The concept of “biophilia” isn’t new. But a focus on incidental and authentic biodiversity helps us apply this very broad, at times unwieldy and non-contextual, concept to the local environment. This grounds efforts in real-time, achievable interventions.
Using novel technologies and interdisciplinary research expands our understanding of the ways our environments affect our mental well-being. This knowledge challenges the standardised planning of nature spaces and monocultured plantings in our cities. Neuroscience can therefore support urban designers and planners in allowing for more flexibility and authenticity of nature in urban areas.
Neuroscientific evidence of our sensory encounters with biodiverse nature points us towards the ultimate win-win (-win) for ecology, mental health and cities.
