The delivery of Cultural Ecosystem Services in urban forests of different landscape features and land use contexts

Urban greenspace provides citizens with important cultural ecosystem services (CES). Identifying landscape features and land use contexts that facilitate CES delivery is critical for guiding urban greenspace management. However, how landscape features and urban context interact with each other in influencing the CES of greenspaces remains unclear. Studies on the CES of patchy urban forests are needed as they are essential urban CES providers, but vulnerable under urban land use pressure. To address these concerns, we compared the CES of 20 urban forest patches in Helsinki, Finland, with five different combinations of landscape features (i.e. size and connectivity) and land use contexts (i.e. surrounding construction density). CES were assessed through an on-site survey on visitors' use, perceptions of CES experience and overall satisfaction, to capture the possible disparities among CES measurements. In larger (>20 ha) forests, visitors were highly satisfied with CES, particularly appreciating the experience of physical health improvement and inspiration through longer and more intense physical uses. Visitors of urban forests in a low construction density context appreciated experiences of cultural heritage, psychological restoration and physical health improvement. Urban forests deliver unique CES characterised by physical use and the benefit of restoration, aesthetics and contact with nature. We suggest that maintaining large urban forests is more effective in promoting CES in high-density areas. In low-density areas, maintaining small forests with open greenspace in the surroundings can also promote CES experiences. We identify management gaps caused by a mismatch between use intensity and CES experiences of urban forests, while both are important in determining people's overall satisfaction. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.Peer reviewe

The use of knowledge in evidence-informed voluntary conservation of Finnish forests

Despite calls for evidence-based policies, the process of using evidence in forest conservation policy implementation has remained unclear. In this paper, we focus on voluntary conservation and investigate complex ways to use evidence in implementation of the Forest Biodiversity Programme METSO in Finland. Data were collected via nine focus group discussions involving a total of 59 forest conservation stakeholders. Through interpretative qualitative analysis, we found that forest owners' and forest advisers' awareness of the voluntary instrument and the smooth interplay of knowledge types are important factors in implementing voluntary conservation. Knowledge use should be locally bound for policy implementation to be effective. Social relationships enable integrating local knowledge. Forest owners, advisers, authorities and other actors interpret scientific and other knowledges (and simultaneously co-produce new knowledge) in practical action. We conclude that educating forest advisers, informing forest owners, and increasing collaboration can enhance evidence flows from research to practice. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Promoting ecosystem and human health in urban areas using green infrastructure: A literature review

Europe is a highly urbanised continent. The consequent loss and degradation of urban and peri-urban green space could adversely affect ecosystems as well as human health and well-being. The aim of this paper is to formulate a conceptual framework of associations between urban green space and ecosystem and human health. Through an interdisciplinary literature review the concepts of Green Infrastructure, ecosystem health, and human health and well-being are discussed. The possible contributions of urban and peri-urban green space systems, or Green Infrastructure, on both ecosystem and human health are critically reviewed. Finally, based on a synthesis of the literature a conceptual framework is presented. The proposed conceptual framework highlights many dynamic factors, and their complex interactions, affecting ecosystem health and human health in urban areas. This framework forms the context into which extant and new research can be placed. In this way it forms the basis for a new interdisciplinary research agenda

Reaction Time and Visual Memory in Connection with Alcohol Use in Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorder

The purpose of this study was to explore the association between cognition and hazardous drinking and alcohol use disorder in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. Cognition is more or less compromised in schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorder and alcohol use might aggravate this phenomenon. The study population included 3362 individuals from Finland with diagnoses of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Hazardous drinking was screened with the AUDIT-C (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test for Consumption) screening tool. Alcohol use disorder (AUD) diagnoses were obtained from national registrar data. Participants performed two computerized tasks from the Cambridge Automated Neuropsychological Test Battery (CANTAB) on a tablet computer: The Five-Choice Serial Reaction Time Task (5-CSRTT) or the reaction time (RT) test and the Paired Associative Learning (PAL) test. The association between alcohol use and the RT and PAL tests was analyzed with log-linear regression and logistic regression, respectively. After adjustment for age, education, housing status, and the age at which the respondents had their first psychotic episodes, hazardous drinking was associated with a lower median RT in females and less variable RT in males, while AUD was associated with a poorer PAL test performance in terms of the total errors adjusted scores (TEASs) in females. Our findings of positive associations between alcohol and cognition in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder are unique

The Concept of Ecosystem Services in Adaptive Urban Planning and Design: A Framework for Supporting Innovation

Recent research and professional interest in planning for sustainable and resilient cities emphasizes the assessment of a broad spectrum of urban ecosystem services. While such assessments are useful to establish specific benchmarks, and for measuring progress toward sustainability and resilience goals, they do not motivate, or support the innovations required to provide specific ecosystem services as an intentional part of routine urban and infrastructure development activity by municipalities and professionals. In this context, predictions for unprecedented future urbanization and development of new urban infrastructure represent a unique opportunity to “learn-by-doing”. Significant advances in urban sustainability have recently been made through transdisciplinary collaborations among researchers, professionals, decision-makers and stakeholders. However, these advances, often through pilot projects, have limited transferability to other cities due to the inherent biophysical and cultural uniqueness of the city in which they originated, and of the projects and plans themselves. The promise of practicing “learning-by-doing”, therefore, remains an elusive goal, not yet fully integrated with urban development. In this essay, a framework for “safe to fail” adaptive urban design is proposed to integrate science, professional practice, and stakeholder participation. The framework is a transdisciplinary working method, and includes experimental design guidelines, monitoring and assessment protocols and strategies for realizing specific urban ecosystem services integral with urban development. The “safe-to-fail” adaptive urban design framework encourages and rewards innovation in a low-risk context – while assessing the achievement and performance of the specific intended ecosystem services

Northern forestry and carabids: The case for concern about old-growth species

Two studies in western Canada focus on whether carabid species specialize in use of old-growth forest habitats. In montane lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Douglas var. latifolia Engelm.) forest, Calathus advena Lec., Carabus chamissonis Fish., Leistus ferruginosus Mnh., Nebria intermedia V. D., Platynus decentis Say, Pterostichus brevicornis Kby., Pterostichus riparius Dej., Scaphinotus marginatus Fisch. and Trechus chalybeus Dej. are common in post-rotation age forest with no history of harvesting, but scarce in or absent from regenerating sites, even 27 years after harvest. Residual populations of old-growth specialists in uncut fragments are exposed to increased contact with habitat generalists and open-habitat specialists from surrounding cut-overs and regenerating forests. Populations of several species of old-growth specialists in lodgepole pine live also in younger, fire-origin stands in boreal aspen (Populus tremuloides Michaux.) stands of the mixedwood zone. We hypothesize that they have recolonized from the large surrounding tracts of unburned residual forest remaining after fire. Thus, landscape-scale effects, resulting in changes in regional population size, may alter the probability of species retention in old-growth fragments, and of the recolonization of cut-blocks by particular species characteristic of old-growth

Association of age at first drink and first alcohol intoxication as predictors of mortality:a birth cohort study

Abstract Background: More information on the health-related repercussions of age at onset of adolescent drinking is needed. The aim of this study was to examine the associations between self-reported age at first drink and age at first alcohol intoxication with the risk of death by age 30. Methods: The sample (n = 6564; 49.1% males) included all participants of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort Study 1986 (NFBC1986) for whom the two measures of adolescent drinking were available. Self-reported age at onset of first drink and first alcohol intoxication were analyzed along with background variables and data regarding subsequent psychiatric diagnoses. Adolescents were dichotomized into those reporting age at first drink and age at first intoxication before or after age 14. Cox regression was used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) for death by age 30. Results: By the age of 30, 0.7% (n = 47) of all 6564 participants were deceased. In the multivariable models, male gender and a history of illicit substance use in adolescence were associated with both all-cause mortality and mortality due to accidents or suicide. After controlling for confounding variables, age at first alcohol intoxication was associated with all-cause mortality (HR 2.33; 95% CI 1.04–5.20) as well as death due to accidents or suicide (HR 2.99; 95% CI 1.11–8.05). Conclusions: Earlier age at first intoxication carries long-term repercussions with respect to premature loss of life. Efforts should be made targeting the prolongation of initiating binge drinking in adolescence to diminish this mortality risk