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Biocultural diversity embraces the dynamic, place-based and complex relationship between biological and cultural diversity. Several studies describe a direct, positive relationship between biological and cultural diversity; however, this relationship is usually entwined within a particular socio-ecological context. We explored the relationship between cultural diversity and agrobiodiversity in smallholder farming systems in a rural landscape in south-central Chile considered as Indigenous Mapuche ancestral territory. We hypothesized a positive correlation between cultural diversity and agrobiodiversity in this context. We estimated three levels of agrobiodiversity: (i) subsystems (vegetable garden, orchard, chacra, annual crops and natural places), (ii) plant species and (iii) plant landraces. In our study area, smallholders form three distinctive groups based on their cultural origin: (i) Indigenous Mapuche, (ii) Chileans and (iii) foreigners. Using diversity indices, we explored patterns across 15 focal landscapes (3.14 km2). Contrary to our hypothesis, we found a negative correlation between cultural diversity and agrobiodiversity, as while Mapuche farms presented the highest agrobiodiversity and were dominant in most focal landscapes, Chilean and foreign-owned farms were mostly dominated by monocultures. This negative link highlights the need to further study this relationship considering different socio-ecological aspects from a historical perspective, as well as from a socio-political point of view. Understanding the complex interactions between culture and biodiversity could help us in facing current challenges such as biodiversity loss, cultural homogenization and reducing conventional agriculture impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Linking ecosystem services to human well-being may help reveal social preferences. • Social preference patterns are not clear for regulating or cultural services. • Human well-being may help to unmask the social importance of cultural services. Evaluations about social preferences for ecosystem services do not always include human well-being. Using a case study in South-Central Chile, we showed how the human well-being approach might reveal social preferences on ecosystem services. We used a socio-cultural approach to compare social preferences for provisioning, regulating, and cultural services and the links people establish to human well-being. From an online questionnaire, we collected 214 responses, balanced in gender (49/51 % men/women, respectively), diverse in age (18 to 62 years), but with 68 % under 30 years. Water for human consumption and agriculture, food, and native forest products were the most preferred provisioning services (40, 28, and 21 %, respectively). In contrast, products from tree plantations were considered the lowest ones. Pollution control (40 %) and water provision during summer (18 %) were the preferred regulating services, while biodiversity conservation (25 %) and environmental education (22 %) were primarily selected cultural ones. We found a clear preference pattern for provisioning services but not for regulating and cultural services. Even though people linked multiple ES to human well-being, some links' patterns mirrored preferences for provisioning services but not for regulating and cultural services. However, although cultural services did not show a clear preference pattern, people perceived their importance by linking them to various benefits. Understanding social preferences of ES based on their links with human well-being helps to address their relevance and potential trade-offs for land planning and management decision-making and convert the ES concept into decision-making instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study pollinators visiting highbush blueberry fields set in landscapes with differing land use pattern in south-central Chile were investigated. Effects of spatial buffers from 0.5 to 8 km around each blueberry field on the abundance of the main wild pollinator, Bombus terrestris queens, were tested. Wild B. terrestris abundances were positively affected by natural forest area and negatively affected by high-food resource area, and these effects were strongest at a buffer radius of 1 and 3.5 km, respectively. Possibly, continuous food resources provided by natural forest areas favor colony establishment and growth, and/or increase overwintering survival of bumblebee queens. Also, pollinator dependent crop area can generate a 'transient dilution effect' by decreasing the density of bumblebees in simultaneously flowering crops. Management strategies might increase crop pollination services by considering the importance of nesting and overwintering habitat quality/amount and area of simultaneously flowering crops requiring insect pollination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Public urban green spaces provide people with many benefits. Understanding the relationship between public urban green spaces' characteristics and human well-being components may assist in future planning and design of these spaces. This study performed a systematic bibliographic review to analyse the relationships between green spaces' specific characteristics and human well-being components. The green spaces characteristics found in 153 articles were divided in four groups: structure, biodiversity, naturalness, and others; while dimensions of human well-being were divided into four groups: health, security, good social relations, and freedom of choice and action. The number of green spaces and their percentage of vegetation cover and size (structure category) improved human well-being, in all aspects, especially in health. Structure and biodiversity are the characteristics most highly rated in the literature. These green spaces' biodiversity and naturalness contribute to human well-being through improvements in health (particularly mental health) and good social relations. The most frequently methods used to assess the relationship of public urban green spaces and human well-being are mainly oriented towards studying perception of the green space's users. This result highlights an opportunity to assess the congruence between methods evaluating perception and objective measurement. Our findings may provide tools for decision-makers to integrate green spaces into planning, identifying specific characteristics of public urban green spaces that promote human well-being and to face climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The range of benefits provided by urban greenspaces is reasonably well understood and a broad consensus has been reached that they provide habitats along with social ecosystem services, such as restoration, health and food. Domestic gardens, which are a primary node of contact between city residents and nature, typically represent a significant portion of the urban greenspaces, so the gardeners who manage them play an important role in maintaining the greenspaces within a city. In this way, gardeners voluntarily provide a public service so should be encouraged, but the motivations of individual gardeners have not been sufficiently studied. In this study, we address this research gap by using a 14 item 'motivations for gardening' scale to evaluate the motivations for gardening held by gardeners in different cultural contexts. We used questionnaires to collect data in three Swiss cities (Lausanne, Bern and Zürich; N = 409) and one Chilean city (Temuco; N = 167) and analysed the responses at both item and scale levels. Although significant differences between Swiss and Chilean responses were found for all individual scale items, a principal component analysis revealed nearly identical component structures for both the Swiss and Chilean samples. Three clear components were identified; restoration as the motivational component receiving the strongest agreement, followed by socialization, and then food production. Nearly identical component structures were found, with the same scale items loading against the same components, when the sample was divided according to age, gender, education and income. These results suggest that motivations for gardening are not context dependant but rather represent an inherent human condition that frames how gardeners manage and interact with their gardens. Acknowledgement of these human needs: especially regarding the restoration benefits that people gain from these spaces, in public policies related to management and regulation of green urban areas has the potential to contribute to the survival of urban gardens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]