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How Many Species Are There? Public Understanding and Awareness of Biodiversity in Switzerland

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Abstract

This paper presents the results of interviews and a questionnaire study on public knowledge of the concept of biodiversity and of plant species richness in Switzerland. Despite its extensive use in science and policy making, the concept of biodiversity is not widely recognized or known to people in Switzerland. Overall, 60% of all study participants (161 grammar school pupils, 110 non-graduates, and 96 graduates in the Canton of Zurich) had never heard the term biodiversity, while the others had come across it primarily in the media. Few study participants considered their school education a relevant source of information about biodiversity. Study participants most frequently referred to the diversity of plants and animals when defining biodiversity, but also quite often believed that biodiversity had something to do with ecological concepts such as the equilibrium between all components of nature. Both young people and adults held widely inaccurate ideas of the plant species richness of communities. Particularly for Switzerland, plant species richness was strongly overestimated.

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Notes

  1. The chi-square test is a statistical test which calculates the probability that the differences in the proportion of different groups are due to chance.

  2. Logistic regression is a form of regression which is used when the dependent is a dichotomous variable and the independents are of any type.

  3. General linear models (GLMs) are a set of models that comprise linear regression, ANOVA, and ANCOVA. The GLM underlies most of the statistical analyses that are used in applied and social research (for a simple explanation see http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/genlin.php).

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Acknowledgements

The authors like to thank all study participants for their time, Michael Ruppeiner and Philipp Marty for their help in collecting data, and an anonymous reviewer for stimulating comments.

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  1. University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Petra Lindemann-Matthies & Elisabeth Bose

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  1. Petra Lindemann-Matthies
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Correspondence to Petra Lindemann-Matthies.

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Lindemann-Matthies, P., Bose, E. How Many Species Are There? Public Understanding and Awareness of Biodiversity in Switzerland. Hum Ecol 36, 731–742 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-008-9194-1

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