Paolo Semenzato

A different way to stay in touch with 'Urban Nature': The perceived restorative qualities of botanical gardens

Botanical gardens represent interesting arenas for research in environmental psychology and environment-behavior relations. They can be considered a very particular type of restorative environment and also have a relevant social function for the promotion of a more sustainable lifestyle in current societies. In this paper, we present a study assessing the relationship between the perceived restorativeness, the psychological and physical benefits experienced, and the subjective well-being reported by visitors of botanical gardens in four different cities in Italy (N = 127). As expected, a bootstrapping mediation model supported the idea that perceived restorativeness of botanical gardens significantly predicts visitors’ subjective well-being, both directly and indirectly through perceived physical and psychological benefits of the visit. A moderation model also revealed that the relationship between restorativeness and well-being varies across respondents with different socio-demographic characteristics, being stronger for singles as compared to couples with and without children, respectively. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Topsoil organic matter properties in contrasted hedgerow vegetation types

Background and aimsHedges, semi-natural landscape components, have the ability to integrate both agronomic and environmental functions and to provide several ecosystem services. The aim of this study was to test whether hedgerow vegetation is a determinant of soil organic matter properties in ancient agricultural lands.MethodsWe complemented cluster analysis and ordination to determine the extent to which two types of hedges that were distinct in character-plant species also differed between each other in concentration and composition of two major constituents of soil organic matter, namely humic substances and dissolved organic matter.ResultsThe two types of hedges were associated with significant differences in humic carbon content, hormone-like activity and molecular size of humic substances, which, in general, were more similar to those typical of forest than of agricultural soils. Moreover, we detected between-group differences in several phenolic acids.ConclusionsVariation of the topsoil biochemical properties of hedges may be explained by variation in their vegetation characteristics, similar to other ecosystems. Spontaneous vegetation in hedges perform an important role in controlling the variability of surface soil properties that influence the evolution of soil organic matter and nutrient availability in agricultural lands.