Understanding park visitors' soundscape perception using subjective and objective measurement.

Environmental noise knows no boundaries, affecting even protected areas. Noise pollution, originating from both external and internal sources, imposes costs on these areas. It is associated with adverse health effects, while natural sounds contribute to cognitive and emotional improvements as ecosystem services. When it comes to parks, individual visitors hold unique perceptions of soundscapes, which can be shaped by various factors such as their motivations for visiting, personal norms, attitudes towards specific sounds, and expectations. In this study, we utilized linear models and geospatial data to evaluate how visitors' personal norms and attitudes, the park's acoustic environment, visitor counts, and the acoustic environment of visitors' neighborhoods influenced their perception of soundscapes at Muir Woods National Monument. Our findings indicate that visitors' subjective experiences had a greater impact on their perception of the park's soundscape compared to purely acoustic factors like sound level of the park itself. Specifically, we found that motivations to hear natural sounds, interference caused by noise, sensitivity to noise, and the sound levels of visitors' home neighborhoods influenced visitors' perception of the park's soundscape. Understanding how personal factors shape visitors' soundscape perception can assist urban and non-urban park planners in effectively managing visitor experiences and expectations.

The social-ecological system of the Kenai River Fishery (Alaska, USA).

We present a collaboratively developed social-ecological model of the Kenai River Fishery. We developed the model through iterative interviews with stakeholders throughout the Kenai Peninsula using a novel participatory Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping process grounded in Ostrom's social-ecological systems framework. Individual social-ecological models, developed one-on-one with stakeholders, were combined into a single aggregated model representing the system's structure and function. We validated this aggregated model through subsequent interviews with stakeholders and focused literature reviews. The result is a model that can: 1) illustrate the breadth and interconnectedness of the Kenai River Fishery's social-ecological system; 2) be used to facilitate discussions around management of the fishery; and 3) be used to explore the components and interactions that move the system toward or away from sustainability. Using the model, we identify how the nature of salmon (migratory) and their habitat (large and unpredictable) leads to uncertainty about effective management strategies. This uncertainty, in addition to a large and diverse set of resource users, creates conflicting management goals that ultimately limit the governance system in making decisions that might increase the sustainability of the fishery.

Improving understanding and management of the complex relationship between visitor motivations and spatial behaviors in parks and protected areas.

Increases in use and changes in the behavior of visitors to parks and protected areas (PPAs) worldwide are challenging the ability of managers to provide for a quality visitor experience while also maintaining the integrity of natural resources. Understanding visitor motivations and spatial behaviors are important for effective management of PPA resources and visitor experiences, as differences in motivations and spatial behaviors can influence the distribution of impacts to a recreation landscape. However, the relationships between motivations and behaviors are not well understood. In this study, we investigated the relationship between motivations and spatial behavior patterns of recreationists within a system of urban and peri-urban PPAs in Orange County, California, USA. Data were collected using paired GPS-based tracking and visitor questionnaires. Factor analysis revealed seven primary motivations derived from a 36-item motivation scale, and classification of visitors by motivations suggests two primary types. A three-way Analysis of Variance examining the relationship between a suite of visitor spatial behaviors and activity type (mountain bike vs. pedestrian), motivation type, and recreation area visited showed that all three variables interacted to influence visitor spatial behavior patterns while recreating. A spatial analysis of visitor dispersion further illustrated these interactions. These results suggest that the relationship between visitor motivations and spatial behaviors is complex. Understanding the complexities of how motivations influence visitor spatial behavior can help land managers mitigate impacts and improve planning for outdoor recreation by predicting where use may increase, how visitors might behave, and highlight locations of future research.

Understanding and managing the interactions of impacts from nature-based recreation and climate change.

Disturbance to ecosystems in parks and protected areas from nature-based tourism and recreation is increasing in scale and severity, as are the impacts of climate change-but there is limited research examining the degree to which these anthropogenic disturbances interact. In this perspective paper, we draw on the available literature to expose complex recreation and climate interactions that may alter ecosystems of high conservation value such that important species and processes no longer persist. Our emphasis is on ecosystems in high demand for tourism and recreation that also are increasingly experiencing stress from climate change. We discuss the importance of developing predictive models of direct and indirect effects, including threshold and legacy effects at different levels of biological organization. We present a conceptual model of these interactions to initiate a dialog among researchers and managers so that new research approaches and managerial frameworks are advanced to address this emerging issue.

Acoustic environments matter: Synergistic benefits to humans and ecological communities.

Protected areas are critical locations worldwide for biodiversity preservation and offer important opportunities for increasingly urbanized humans to experience nature. However, biodiversity preservation and visitor access are often at odds and creative solutions are needed to safeguard protected area natural resources in the face of high visitor use. Managing human impacts to natural soundscapes could serve as a powerful tool for resolving these conflicting objectives. Here, we review emerging research that demonstrates that the acoustic environment is critical to wildlife and that sounds shape the quality of nature-based experiences for humans. Human-made noise is known to affect animal behavior, distributions and reproductive success, and the organization of ecological communities. Additionally, new research suggests that interactions with nature, including natural sounds, confer benefits to human welfare termed psychological ecosystem services. In areas influenced by noise, elevated human-made noise not only limits the variety and abundance of organisms accessible to outdoor recreationists, but also impairs their capacity to perceive the wildlife that remains. Thus soundscape changes can degrade, and potentially limit the benefits derived from experiences with nature via indirect and direct mechanisms. We discuss the effects of noise on wildlife and visitors through the concept of listening area and demonstrate how the perceptual worlds of both birds and humans are reduced by noise. Finally, we discuss how management of soundscapes in protected areas may be an innovative solution to safeguarding both and recommend several key questions and research directions to stimulate new research.

The influence of visitor use levels on visitor spatial behavior in off-trail areas of dispersed recreation use.

A variety of social and ecological factors influence the level and extent of ecological change that occurs in a park or protected area. Understanding these factors and how they are interrelated can help managers prevent undesirable ecological impacts, especially in areas without formal trails and visitor sites. This study examines the relationship between levels of visitor use and spatial patterns of visitor behavior at a variety of backcountry recreation destinations. Current assumptions in both the literature and simulation modeling efforts assume that visitor behavior either does not change with use level or that visitors are more likely to disperse at high levels of visitor use. Using visitor counts and GPS tracks of visitor behavior in locations where visitors could disperse off-trail, we found that visitors' spatial behavior does vary with visitor use level in some recreation settings, however the patterns of visitor behavior observed in this study are sometimes contrary to current generalizations. When visitor behavior does vary with use level, visitors are dispersing more at low levels of visitor use not when use level is high. Overall, these findings suggest that in certain situations the amount of visitor use at a recreation destination may be a less important driver of ecological change than visitor behavior.

The effect of minimum impact education on visitor spatial behavior in parks and protected areas: An experimental investigation using GPS-based tracking.

The unmanaged impacts of recreation and tourism can often result in unacceptable changes in resource conditions and quality of the visitor experience. Minimum impact visitor education programs aim to reduce the impacts of recreation by altering visitor behaviors. Specifically, education seeks to reduce impacts resulting from lack of knowledge both about the consequences of one's actions and impact-minimizing best practices. In this study, three different on-site minimum impact education strategies ("treatments") and a control condition were applied on the trails and summit area of Sargent Mountain in Acadia National Park, Maine. Treatment conditions were designed to encourage visitors to stay on marked trails and minimize off-trail travel. Treatments included a message delivered via personal contact, and both an ecological-based message and an amenity-based message posted on signs located alongside the trail. A control condition of current trail markings and directional signs was also assessed. The efficacy of the messaging was evaluated through the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking of visitor spatial behavior on/off trails. Spatial analysis of GPS tracks revealed statistically significant differences among treatments, with the personal contact treatment yielding significantly less dispersion of visitors on the mountain summit. Results also indicate that the signs deployed in the study were ineffective at limiting off-trail use beyond what can be accomplished with trail markers and directional signs. These findings suggest that personal contact by a uniformed ranger or volunteer may be the most effective means of message delivery for on-site minimum impact education.

Is tourism damaging ecosystems in the Andes? Current knowledge and an agenda for future research.

Despite the popularity of tourism and recreation in the Andes in South America and the regions conservation value, there is limited research on the ecological impacts of these types of anthropogenic use. Using a systematic quantitative literature review method, we found 47 recreation ecology studies from the Andes, 25 of which used an experimental design. Most of these were from the Southern Andes in Argentina (13 studies) or Chile (eight studies) with only four studies from the Northern Andes. These studies documented a range of impacts on vegetation, birds and mammals; including changes in plant species richness, composition and vegetation cover and the tolerance of wildlife of visitor use. There was little research on the impacts of visitors on soils and aquatic systems and for some ecoregions in the Andes. We identify research priorities across the region that will enhance management strategies to minimise visitor impacts in Andean ecosystems.

Enhancing the utility of visitor impact assessment in parks and protected areas: a combined social-ecological approach.

Understanding the ecological consequences of visitor use in parks and how visitors interact with resource conditions is essential for avoiding the impairment of park and protected area resources and visitor experiences. This study combined ecological measures of off-trail resource impacts with social science techniques to understand visitor judgments of ecological impacts and visitors' degree of exposure to impacts. Specifically, this paper reports on a novel integration of techniques that was tested in the Bear Lake Road Corridor of Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, USA in which resource change, as a result of visitor use off designated trails and sites, was assessed and combined with social science and visitor use data. Visual survey techniques were used to understand visitor judgments of ecologically important resource impacts and GPS-tracking of visitor use and behavior allowed for the determination of the degree of visitor's exposure to impaired resources. Results suggest that resource impacts are prevalent and intense throughout the area, but tended to be spatially limited in proximity to attraction sites. Visitors are interacting with resource conditions reported to be unacceptable for significant portions of their hikes. Overall, the work represents an advancement of predictive capabilities when managing park and protected area resources.

The effects of local ecological knowledge, minimum-impact knowledge, and prior experience on visitor perceptions of the ecological impacts of backcountry recreation.

An on-site visitor survey instrument was developed to examine visitor perceptions of resource impacts resulting from backcountry hiking activities. The survey was conducted in the Bear Lake Corridor of Rocky Mountain National Park, CO and examined visitor characteristics that may influence visitor perceptions of specific resource conditions. Findings indicate that visitors are more perceptive of recreation-related resource impacts that are the result of undesirable behavior and, while visitors do perceive resource impacts, visitors tend to be more affected by crowding. Factors such as local ecological knowledge and knowledge of minimal-impact practices positively influence visitor perceptions of resource impacts. These findings support the use of visitor education on ecological knowledge and minimum-impact as a means of increasing visitor awareness of recreation impact issues.

The consequences of backcountry surface disposal of human waste in an alpine, temperate forest and arid environment.

Surface disposal of human waste by the smear method, a suggested but heretofore unexamined technique, was tested in three environments and examined for reductions in fecal mass and fecal indicator bacteria. Substantial reduction in fecal mass was observed after six and fourteen weeks of exposure in all environments, but extensive reduction in fecal indicator bacteria was observed in only the arid and alpine environments. Although surface smears appear favorable to cathole techniques in terms of indicator bacteria reduction, the application of this method is limited by several other factors common to backcountry sanitation situations. It is therefore likely that surface disposal would only be applicable in very remote, low use, alpine and arid settings where lack of soil development precludes the use of catholes and carry-out techniques are otherwise impractical.

A classification of backcountry campsites in Prince William Sound, Alaska, USA.

This study examined resource conditions on backcountry campsites in Prince William Sound, Alaska, USA. In order to further the understanding of campsite impacts and to improve monitoring and assessment methods, we employed a multivariate analysis procedure, suggested in one study, but heretofore untested on data from other campsite assessments. Factor analysis of ten impact indicator variables from 146 campsites produced three dimensions of campsite impact-tree and vegetation disturbance, areal disturbance and visitor behavior-related disturbance. Three types of campsites, which differed substantially in the types of impact exhibited, were then derived from a cluster analysis of the factor scores. Further analysis revealed a significant relationship between the types of substrates where campsites were located and the types of campsites derived from the analysis. This work illustrates the utility of multi-indicator monitoring approaches and the use of multivariate methods for classifying campsites, as the campsite types identified would likely require different management strategies for limiting the proliferation and expansion of impacts.

Sustaining visitor use in protected areas: future opportunities in recreation ecology research based on the USA experience.

Recreation ecology, the study of environmental consequences of outdoor recreation activities and their effective management, is a relatively new field of scientific study having emerged over the last 50 years. During this time, numerous studies have improved our understanding of how use-related, environmental and managerial factors affect ecological conditions and processes. Most studies have focused on vegetation and soil responses to recreation-related trampling on trails and recreation sites using indicators such as percent vegetation cover and exposed mineral soil. This applied approach has and will continue to yield important information for land managers. However, for the field to advance, more attention needs to be given to other ecosystem attributes and to the larger aspects of environmental conservation occurring at landscape scales. This article is an effort at initiating a dialog on needed advances in the field. We begin by reviewing broadly generalizable knowledge of recreation ecology, to separate what is known from research gaps. Then, based on the authors' perspective of research in the USA and North America, several research directions are suggested as essential for continued progress in this field including theoretical development, broadening scale, integration with other disciplines, and examination of synergistic effects.

Spatial patterns of recreation impact on experimental campsites.

Management of camping impacts in protected areas worldwide is limited by inadequate understanding of spatial patterns of impact and attention to spatial management strategies. Spatial patterns of campsite impact were studied in two subalpine plant communities in the Wind River Mountains, Wyoming, USA (a forest and a meadow). Response to chronic disturbance and recovery from acute disturbance were both assessed. Previously undisturbed sites were camped on at intensities of one and four nights/year, for either one or three consecutive years. Recovery was followed for three years on sites camped on for one year. Percent bare ground, assessed in 49 contiguous 1 m2 quadrats, increased with increasing use frequency, particularly on the forest sites. Magnitude of impact varied spatially within campsites, with impact decreasing as distance from the center of the campsite increased. On the more fragile forest sites, this radial impact pattern developed rapidly and remained after three years of recovery. Concentration of camping activities around a centrally located small cooking stove was the apparent cause of this pattern. Maximum variation in magnitude of impact occurred at intermediate levels of campsite use and disturbance. The magnitude, variability and spatial pattern of impact varied with the spatial scale of analysis. Generally, results of these controlled experiments are consistent with earlier studies of campsites and validate the management implications derived from those studies. Even where campers use low-impact techniques, low levels of camping use can cause substantial impact and it is important to concentrate use. On resistant sites, however, it is possible that low levels of use can be sustained with minimal resultant impact.

Impacts of camping on vegetation: response and recovery following acute and chronic disturbance.

Experiments with controlled levels of recreational camping were conducted on previously undisturbed sites in two different plant communities in the subalpine zone of the Wind River Mountains, Wyoming, USA. The plant communities were coniferous forest with understory dominated by the low shrub Vaccinium scoparium and a riparian meadow of intermixed grasses and forbs, of which Deschampsia cespitosa was most abundant. Sites were camped on at intensities of either one or four nights per year, for either one (acute disturbance) or three consecutive years (chronic disturbance). Recovery was followed for three years on sites camped on for one year and for one year on sites camped on for three years. Reductions in vegetation cover and vegetation height were much more pronounced on sites in the forest than on sites in the meadow. In both plant communities, increases in vegetation impact were not proportional to increases in either years of camping or nights per year of camping. Close to the center of campsites, near-maximum levels of impact occurred after the first year of camping on forested sites and after the second year on meadow sites. Meadow sites recovered completely within a year, at the camping intensities employed in the experiments. Forest sites, even those camped on for just one night, did not recover completely within three years. Differences between acute and chronic disturbance were not pronounced.

The response of two arctic tundra plant communities to human trampling disturbance.

A 4-year study was conducted to evaluate the consequences of human trampling on dryas and tussock tundra plant communities. Treatments of 25, 75, 200 and 500 trampling passes were applied in 0.75 m2 vegetation plots at a time of approximately peak seasonal biomass. Immediately after and 1 and 4 years after trampling, plots were evaluated on the basis of plant species cover, percent bare ground, vegetation height, and soil penetration resistance. One year after trampling, soils were collected for nitrogen analysis in highly disturbed and control plots. Immediately after trampling, 500 trampling passes resulted in approximately 50% cover loss in the dryas tundra and 70% cover loss in tussock tundra, but both communities showed a substantial capacity for regrowth. Plots where low and moderate levels of trampling were applied returned to pre-disturbance conditions by 4 years after trampling, but impact was still evident in plots subjected to high levels of disturbance. These results suggest that these tundra communities can tolerate moderate levels of hiking and camping provided that use is maintained below disturbance thresholds and that visitors employ appropriate minimum-impact techniques. By utilizing this information in a visitor education program combined with impact monitoring and management, it is possible to allow dispersed camping and still maintain these vegetation communities with a minimum of observable impact.