Demographic and spatial variables associated with spending time in nature during COVID-19 lockdowns.

To stop the spread of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (COVID-19) governments around the world implemented lockdowns restricting public travel. In the Australian state of Victoria, this included limiting permitted reasons for leaving home and restricting movements to within a 5 km radius of one's home. In 2020, we conducted a state-wide survey (N = 1024) of Victorians that coincided with a lockdown. We asked respondents where they had spent time in nature and how they perceived lockdowns affected the amount of time they spent in nature. We then considered demographic and spatial predictors of spending more or less time in nature. Women, younger people, and those living in areas with higher socio-economic status were likely to report spending more time in nature. Closer proximity of residents to parks and waterways and higher proportional area of native vegetation within a 1-km radius were also associated with more time in nature. Understanding how different groups were affected by restrictions on access to nature can help improve government management of crises like pandemics, including through urban planning for green space, supporting improved individual and societal resilience. We discuss the implications of our findings for improving access to nature during lockdowns as well as opportunities for a post-pandemic relationship with nature, particularly in urban settings.

Projecting biodiversity benefits of conservation behavior-change programs.

Biodiversity loss is driven by human behavior, but there is uncertainty about the effectiveness of behavior-change programs in delivering benefits to biodiversity. To demonstrate their value, the biodiversity benefits and cost-effectiveness of behavior changes that directly or indirectly affect biodiversity need to be quantified. We adapted a structured decision-making prioritization tool to determine the potential biodiversity benefits of behavior changes. As a case study, we examined two hypothetical behavior-change programs--wildlife gardening and cat containment--by asking experts to consider the behaviors associated with these programs that directly and indirectly affect biodiversity. We assessed benefits to southern brown bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus) and superb fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus) by eliciting from experts estimates of the probability of each species persisting in the landscape given a range of behavior-change scenarios in which uptake of the behaviors varied. We then compared these estimates to a business-as-usual scenario to determine the relative biodiversity benefit and cost-effectiveness of each scenario. Experts projected that the behavior-change programs would benefit biodiversity and that benefits would rise with increasing uptake of the target behaviors. Biodiversity benefits were also predicted to accrue through indirect behaviors, although experts disagreed about the magnitude of additional benefit provided. Scenarios that combined the two behavior-change programs were estimated to provide the greatest benefits to species and be most cost-effective. Our method could be used in other contexts and potentially at different scales and advances the use of prioritization tools to guide conservation behavior-change programs.

Proyección de los beneficios para la biodiversidad obtenidos de los programas de cambios de comportamiento de conservación Resumen La pérdida de la diversidad biológica es causada por el comportamiento humano, pero existe incertidumbre sobre la efectividad que tienen los programas de cambio de comportamiento para otorgar beneficios a la biodiversidad. Para demostrar el valor que poseen, los beneficios para la biodiversidad y la rentabilidad de los cambios de comportamiento que afectan directa o indirectamente a la biodiversidad necesitan ser cuantificados. Adaptamos una herramienta de priorización de toma de decisiones estructurada para determinar el potencial de los beneficios para la biodiversidad obtenidos de los cambios de comportamiento. Como estudio de caso, examinamos dos programas hipotéticos de cambio de comportamiento, la jardinería silvestre y la contención de gatos, mediante la petición a expertos de considerar los comportamientos asociados con estos programas que directa o indirectamente afectan a la biodiversidad. Evaluamos los beneficios para el bandicut café (Isoodon obeselus) y el reyezuelo supremo (Malurus cyaeneus) mediante la obtención de estimaciones de expertos de la probabilidad de que cada especie persista en el paisaje con una gama establecida de escenarios de cambios de comportamiento en los cuales la aceptación de los comportamientos varió. Después comparamos estas estimaciones con un escenario de situación normal para determinar el beneficio relativo para la biodiversidad y la rentabilidad de cada escenario. Los expertos proyectaron que los programas de cambio de comportamiento beneficiarían a la biodiversidad y que los beneficios aumentarían con la creciente aceptación de los comportamientos deseados. También se pronosticó que los beneficios se acumularían mediante comportamientos indirectos, aunque los expertos estuvieron en desacuerdo sobre la magnitud del beneficio adicional proporcionado. Se estimó que los escenarios que combinaron los dos programas de cambio de comportamiento proporcionarían el mayor beneficio para las especies y serían los más rentables. Nuestro método podría usarse en otros contextos y potencialmente a diferentes escalas y fomenta el uso de herramientas de priorización para orientar a los programas de cambios en el comportamiento de conservación.

Expanding collaborative autoethnography into the world of natural science for transdisciplinary teams.

Wicked problems such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic require authentically transdisciplinary approaches to achieving effective collaboration. There exist several research approaches for identifying the components and interactions of complex problems; however, collaborative autoethnography provides an empirical way to collect and analyze self-reflection that leads to transformative change. Here, we present a case study of collaborative autoethnography, applied as a tool to transform research practice among a group of natural and social scientists, by constructively revealing and resolving deep, often unseen, disciplinary divides. We ask, "How can natural and social scientists genuinely accept, respect, and share one another's approaches to work on the wicked problems that need to be solved?" This study demonstrates how disciplinary divisions can be successfully bridged by open-minded and committed collaborators who are prepared to recognize the academic bias they bring to their research and use this as a platform of strength.