'Is plant diversity beautiful?' study asks

A quick Sunday write-up on unique research from Germany…

A new study addresses a simple but seldomly asked question: "Is plant diversity beautiful?"

Researchers set out to answer this by asking study participants to rate the attractiveness of different meadow plots with varying levels of species richness - ranging from monocultures to 64 plant species. They found that the greater the number of species, the more attractive people ranked the meadows. 

So this is interesting to know, but why should we care? For one thing, this means we can add aesthetics to the list of values that we can attribute to biodiversity. The researchers write: 

"The conservation of biodiversity critically depends on the value that humans attach to it. …The demonstration of a link between the diversity of a community and its aesthetic value could provide a further argument for the conservation of diverse communities."

In the past, conservationists have tended to communicate the importance of biodiversity to the public by focusing on a few glamorous species.  The study results indicate that biodiversity unto itself affects the beauty that people find in nature independent of particularly appealing individual species. 

These findings may help conservationists figure out how to better communicate the importance of biodiversity as a distinct value. This in turn might foster a greater public understanding and acceptance of management measures that are needed to promote biodiversity. 

--Reviewed by Rob Goldstein

Lindemann-Matthies, P., Junge, X., & Matthies, D. (2009). The influence of plant diversity on people’s perception and aesthetic appreciation of grassland vegetation Biological Conservation DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2009.10.003