- 1Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR), University of Helsinki, Finland (benat.olascoagagracia@helsinki.fi)
- 2Helsinki Institute of Sustainable Science (HELSUS), University of Helsinki, Finland
- 3Ecosystem and Environment Research Programme, University of Helsinki, Finland
- 4Helsinki Institute of Life Sciences (HiLIFE), University of Helsinki, Finland
- 5Organismal and Evolutionary Research Program, University of Helsinki, Finland
- 6School of Resource Wisdom, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
- 7Department of Psychology, The College of Wooster, USA
Urbanisation and biodiversity loss in urban sprawling areas diminish human-nature interactions, which could hinder nature conservation initiatives (Soga & Gaston, 2026). To evaluate whether a more biodiverse urban greenspace promotes human-nature interactions, we developed a survey to explore attitudes towards urban lawns and meadows among residents of the Helsinki metropolitan area.
About 70% of survey respondents were willing to participate in transforming a lawn into a meadow. Consequently, six lawns were transformed into meadows via voluntary participation (Trémeau et al. 2024). Biodiversity parameters, greenhouse gas dynamics and soil physicochemical properties between control lawns and transformed meadows were compared over three consecutive years, starting the year prior to the transformation. Since transformations, vegetation richness and diversity increased over time in transformed meadows, unlike in lawns, yet evenness decreased. Transformed meadows provided resources for 35 species of bees. Neither total ecosystem respiration rates nor nitrous oxide and methane fluxes differed between the two greenspace types. Similarly, none of the soil physicochemical properties differed between meadow and lawn soils. Neither meadow soil microbial communities nor bacterial or fungal biomasses significantly differed from those found in lawn soils, suggesting that any possible change in soil aspects takes a longer time to respond to changes in aboveground plant communities and management.
In parallel, we measured respondents’ environmental identity (EID), environmental concern (EC) and experiences of nature (EoN). We developed a pool of 26 EoN items and scaled them within six dimensions: observing/interacting, consumptive/appreciative, self-directed/other-directed, separate/integrated, solitary/shared and positive/negative (Clayton et al. 2017). We analysed EoN dimensionality via structural equation modelling and determined the best model to contain all except a consumptive/appreciative dimension. There were significant correlations between EoN and respondents’ EID and EC, yet correlations suggest EoN is a distinct construct from EID and EC.
This study combines social and environmental sciences to explore nature experiences and attitudes, illustrating a case of the potential that easy citizen-based transformations have on enhancing urban biodiversity and human-nature interactions.
References
Clayton et al. 2017. Transformation of experience: toward a new relationship with nature. Consev Lett 10(5): 645–651.
Soga & Gaston. 2016. Extinction of experience: the loss of human–nature interactions. Front Ecol Environ 14(2): 94–101.
Trémeau et al. 2024. Lawns and meadows in urban green space – a comparison from perspectives of greenhouse gases, drought resilience and plant functional types. Biogeosciences 21: 949–972.
How to cite: Olascoaga, B., Oldén, A., Karhu, K., Duplouy, A., Halme, P., Vainio, A., and Clayton, S.: Attitudes towards urban lawns and meadows and short-term environmental effects of transforming lawns into meadows in Helsinki metropolitan area, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-15944, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-15944, 2025.
