Page - 146 - in Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change

146 people to rest and recover their ability to direct attention. Natural environments are theorised to be especially good environments for attention restoration, because nat- ural environments have a high level of these four restorative qualities (Kaplan and Kaplan 1989; Kaplan 1995). 7.3.2.1 Connection to  Biodiversity in  the  ART Biodiversity was not a concept that was used in the original theoretical writings of the ART.  However, using the theory, one could hypothesise that more biodiverse natural environments may be better environments for restoring directed attention as they may contain fascinating stimuli and afford the experience of being away. Indeed, the relationship between biodiverse environments and the four experiential restorative qualities of ART  has been investigated. A significant, positive associa- tion between the objectively assessed level of biodiversity and all four qualities of a restorative environment has been found  (Scopelliti et  al. 2012). However, small urban green spaces rich in plant and animal species were found to be  positively related to coherence, but  negatively related to fascination, and not related to being away or compatibility (Peschardt and Stigsdotter 2013).  Examing perceived biodi- versity,  Marselle et  al. (2016) found perceived biodiversity  of birds was positively associated with being away, fascination and compatibility, but not coherence (Marselle et  al. 2016). Whereas,  perceived biodiversity of plants/trees and butter- flies were not related to any restorative qualities (Marselle et  al. 2016). Foo (2016) investigated the mediating pathways between spending time in forest environments with low, medium or high levels of biodiversity, and mental health. Individuals who spent time in medium or high biodiverse forest environments experienced a sense of being away, which was positively associated with a change in mood, which then was related to improved mental health. This multiple mediation pathway was not found in the low biodiverse forest. Significant, positive associations between objec- tively assessed level of biodiversity and perceived restorativeness  – a composite measure of all four experiential qualities  – have also been found (Scopelliti et  al. 2012; Carrus et  al. 2015). Measuring biodiversity indirectly by investigating differ- ent landscape types in the Black Forest National Park, Ensinger and von Lindern (2018) found significantly greater fascination, being away and compatibility from walking in wilderness compared to other types of landscapes (see Box 7.4). Researchers have also investigated whether biodiversity could facilitate restora- tion as an outcome  – without investigating the specific four experiential qualities of ART.  White et  al. (2017) found greater perceived species richness of animals/plants was positively associated with perceived restorative potential. As the level of biodi- versity perceived in the environment increased, more participants reported that the environment would be good for restoration. However, Cracknell et  al. (2017) found that abundance of all fish/crustaceans, and not the number of species, influenced participants’ perception of the scene as restorative. See Korpela et  al. (2018) for further details of studies examining biodiversity and ART outcomes. M. R. Marselle