Effects of biodiversity, habitat structure, and water quality on recreational use of rivers

Anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity and habitat conditions can lead to loss of ecosystem services. Cultural services of ecosystems are one of the major categories of ecosystem services, but the relationships between ecosystem conditions and human uses of their cultural services are still largely unknown. To estimate the effects of biodiversity, habitat structure, and environmental pollution on recreational uses of ecosystems, existing data sets for 109 rivers across Japan were used to analyze the relationships among recreational uses of these rivers (fishing, playing in the river, walking, and engaging in sports near the river) and their biodiversity, habitat structure, and water quality. Fish diversity, habitat structure, and water quality had significant effects on the number of people fishing and playing in the rivers. The number of people walking and engaging in sports, which typically takes place on floodplains and dikes, was significantly positively related to the size of the surrounding population rather than to biodiversity or habitat structure. However, water quality had significant effects on such uses of river ecosystems, even though these activities did not involve direct contact with river water. Overall, a decline in biodiversity and ecosystem health was related to a decrease in recreational use.