1. The document discusses a research project studying how forest diversity affects human health and well-being. 2. The project involves researchers from multiple countries studying topics like mental well-being, thermal stress, ticks/Lyme disease, air quality, and mushrooms across diverse and natural forest sites. 3. Preliminary results suggest that increased forest diversity is correlated with benefits like improved mental well-being, reduced thermal stress, fewer ticks and Lyme disease, and better air quality, potentially due to factors like varied sensory stimuli, buffered microclimates, predator control, and particle filtering by diverse, multi-layered forests.

1. 08/12/2022 Dr. FOREST 1
Dr. FOREST
Diversity of forests affecting human health and well-being
Prof. Dr. Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg

2. Who We Are
• France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Poland
• 4 PhD theses, 12 institutions, 30+ people
• 2020-2023

3. Rationale
urban vs. green spaces Low vs. high biodiversity
?

4. Rationale
4
Risks
Ecosystem dis-services
Benefits
Ecosystem services

5. Guiding hypotheses
Increasing the restoring and building capacities that
improve mental and physical health
Decreasing physical illness caused by allergies, infections
or chronic disease
1. Psychological restoration
2. Recreation & products
3. Disease vectors
4. Air pollution

6. Research sites
Photo: Kyle Kovac
Tree diversity experiments
e.g. BIOTREE (Germany)

7. 7
Natural forests
e.g. Białowieża (Poland)
08/12/2022 Dr. FOREST

8. Summary of results
Topic Structure Diversity Composition
Mental well-being (+)
Thermic stress + +
Ticks & Lyme ± + ±
Mushrooms +
Fine particles + +

9. A “health forest”? Some hypotheses
• Psychological restoration
 Different visual and acoustic stimuli
Multi-layered forest canopies, micro-habitats as niches
• Recreation & products
 Buffered microclimate and variety of plants & fungi
 Multi-layered forest canopies, light availability, different tree species
• Disease vectors
 Host-dilution and predator control
 High tree species richness, multi-layered forest canopies
• Air pollution
 Particle filtering and ozone uptake
Multi-layered forest canopies, dense foliage, water availability

10. 08/12/2022 Dr. FOREST 10
Thank you
www.dr-forest.eu
 1-min. video