We have seen a lot of research on the positive correlation between our time spent in nature and our mental well-being, as the more time you spend outside shows positive effects on your mental state. These positive effects are in great contradiction with how most people live, as populations continue to grow we see more people living in cities and being less exposed to nature. Cityscapes are much more populated with man-made structures which can cause feelings of stress rather than relaxation which exposure to nature has been shown to cause. What we want to look into is whether this is affected by the age and size of nature we are within. This research asks how old-growth forests compare to young-growth forests in Michigan affect people's perception of nature and their well-being. Studies researching the effects of being in nature show that people experience more benefits in species-rich environments. This is of interest because old-growth forests hold much more biodiversity which leads to the question of if old-growth will stimulate more mental benefits. Aspects of the sublime, that being great awe from the aesthetic beauty or something so grand and vast, could affect this research as well; exposure to such old, large, and vast natural landscapes and forests could cause feelings of pleasure and harmony overall boosting mood.
It is important to note that as a society we are spending less and less time outside and more sedentary. As history goes on, our populations are growing, and it is forcing us to expand and put more effort into urban settings, this is concentrating people into more man-made spaces and creating a distance from nature. It was found that 75% of nature experiences were experienced by just 50% of the population. However, cumulatively 75% of interactions where people were actually present in nature were experienced by just 32% of the population. This shows how so few people are experiencing nature, whether that be directly in nature or viewed through a window. This shows how only a small percentage of people experience nature consistently, while most of the population is detached from nature as time goes on, overall losing the benefits that I will go over
The time spent in forests makes people feel more positive emotions rather than in urban areas, decreasing tension and anxiety, anger and hostility, fatigue, confusion, and mood disturbance. This exposure to natural environments works through your psychological pathways which reduces stress, increases social cohesion, physical activities, and replacement of cognitive capacities. Keeping spaces available for people to visit and be in nature is important for people to see and feel these effects.
A study found that in urban greenspaces, there was a positive correlation between the species richness of plants and the well-being of those visitors, meaning that the more diverse the plant life the better the benefit for our mental health. The positive mental effects of exposure to more biodiversity in a forest also had to do with how biodiverse the person perceived the landscape, rather than the actual biodiversity within it. This shows that our perspective or view of nature has an effect on our mental state, not just the pure fact of how biodiverse and species-rich it is. Aspects of this biodiversity effect can be shown in species-rich communities more likely to have species considered beautiful by the viewer, creating more appreciation for the environment they are in
This idea of more appreciation for nature relates to the sublime. The sublime is having pleasure in the perception of harmony, by seeing beautiful objects, usually in the form of nature, and how it facilitates great awe and calm. The sublime is a dynamic feeling as it is a very philosophical thought; the sublime is “a power that has no domination over us” that being experiencing nature as fearful while knowing we are in a position of safety, and so not being afraid. This concept of the sublime can also have a sense of displeasure, as facing nature can cause a sense of physical powerlessness, as we are small creatures in the vastness of nature. This exact idea of us being small in a vast and large nature could also make us feel the opposite and feel pleasure, as it can give a feeling of being part of something bigger than yourself
Old-growth forests are known to be very large woods that hold lots of biodiversity, large mature trees and flora with significant dead wood and organic matter. If people feel a mental boost when exposed to nature compared to urban landscapes, then we hope to see if changing nature to older and larger has any different effects.
Old-growth forests tend to be more biodiverse and as seen in the literature, biodiversity boosts mental state.
Old-growth forests are large and vast, which can impose the feeling of the sublime, creating a deeper feeling of connection to nature.
Exposure to nature creates mental boosts, so exposure to bigger and older nature could have stronger mental effects.
A study in Japan looked into mental effects comparing mental state in cityscapes compared to the old-growth forest in Yamagata Prefecture also found positive effects in old growth, but no studies directly comparing young-growth to old-growth have been done.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This lack of research comparing the effect of old-growth to young-growth forests with the previous research showing exposure to nature has mental benefits is why we are researching...
This study uses the stress reduction theory as the basis of our research. The basis of stress reduction theory is that natural environments reduce stress while artificial ones increase stress levels in individuals, this is due to the millions of years of evolution that has gotten us here today.
The chart above shows how this framework works and all the aspects of the framework.
Impacts on Biodiversity Elements- This states that the more biodiverse an environment is will have an effect on your overall mental stress.
Perceived Oppressiveness- This will be affected by how dense an environment is, in this study, it will be seen as the size and density of the trees and flora around someone, and how it affects their mental stress.
Perceived Environmental Quality: This is made up of your stress levels from the Biodiversity Elements and your Perceived Oppressiveness. Your perceived environmental quality has to do with the space that is around you in its totality and how it affects your mental state.
Chronic Mental Stress, Time Exposed, and Demographics- These three are variables that will affect your overall stress levels. Previous stress levels in someone's life will affect the outcomes of the study, exposure for longer or shorter times will affect your stress, and your history and demographic will change your stress levels.
Acute Mental Stress- This is the accumulation of all the previous variables, creating the overall stress level someone feels at a given time. This is the final variable we are looking for.
Alig, R. J., Kline, J. D., & Lichtenstein, M. (2004). Urbanization on the US landscape: Looking ahead in the 21st century. Landscape and Urban Planning, 69(2–3), 219–234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2003.07.004
Bratman, G. N., Anderson, C. B., Berman, M. G., Cochran, B., de Vries, S., Flanders, J., Folke, C., Frumkin, H., Gross, J. J., Hartig, T., Kahn, P. H., Kuo, M., Lawler, J. J., Levin, P. S., Lindahl, T., Meyer-Lindenberg, A., Mitchell, R., Ouyang, Z., Roe, J., … Daily, G. C. (2019). Nature and mental health: An ecosystem service perspective. In Sci. Adv (Vol. 5). https://www.science.org
Cox, D. T. C., Hudson, H. L., Shanahan, D. F., Fuller, R. A., & Gaston, K. J. (2017). The rarity of direct experiences of nature in an urban population. Landscape and Urban Planning, 160, 79–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.12.006
Fuller, R. A., Irvine, K. N., Devine-Wright, P., Warren, P. H., & Gaston, K. J. (2007). Psychological benefits of greenspace increase with biodiversity. Biology Letters, 3(4), 390–394. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2007.0149
Ginsborg, Hannah, "Kant’s Aesthetics and Teleology", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2022 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2022/entries/kant-aesthetics/>.
HOLDSWORTH, A. R., FRELICH, L. E., & REICH, P. B. (2007). Effects of earthworm invasion on plant species richness in northern hardwood forests. Conservation Biology, 21(4), 997–1008. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2007.00740.x
Lindemann-Matthies, P., Junge, X., & Matthies, D. (2010). The influence of plant diversity on people’s perception and aesthetic appreciation of grassland vegetation. Biological Conservation, 143(1), 195–202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2009.10.003
Luo, L., & Jiang, B. (2022). From oppressiveness to stress: A development of Stress Reduction Theory in the context of contemporary high-density city. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101883
Mambrol, N. (2021, February 16). The sublime. Literary Theory and Criticism. https://literariness.org/2021/02/16/the-sublime/
Park, B. J., Furuya, K., Kasetani, T., Takayama, N., Kagawa, T., & Miyazaki, Y. (2011). Relationship between psychological responses and physical environments in forest settings. Landscape and Urban Planning, 102(1), 24–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2011.03.005
Spies, T. A., & Franklin, J. F. (1996). The diversity and maintenance of old-growth forests.
Spies, T. A. (2004). Ecological Concepts and diversity of old-growth forests. Journal of Forestry, 102(3), 14–20. https://doi.org/10.1093/jof/102.3.14
Tappeiner, J. C., Huffman, D., Marshall, D., Spies, T. A., & Bailey, J. D. (1997). Density, ages, and growth rates in old-growth and young-growth forests in coastal Oregon 1.
Tsunetsugu, Y., Park, B. J., Ishii, H., Hirano, H., Kagawa, T., & Miyazaki, Y. (2007). Physiological effects of Shinrin-yoku (taking in the atmosphere of the forest) in an old-growth broadleaf forest in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. Journal of Physiological Anthropology, 26(2), 135–142. https://doi.org/10.2114/jpa2.26.135
Woods, K. D., Hicks, D. J., & Schultz, J. (2012). Losses in understory diversity over three decades in an old-growth cool-temperate forest in Michigan, USA. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 42(3), 532–549. https://doi.org/10.1139/X2012-006
Woods, K. D. (2014). Multi-decade biomass dynamics in an old-growth hemlock-northern hardwood forest,Michigan, USA. PeerJ, 2014(1). https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.598