Powerful flowers: public perception of grassland aesthetics is strongly related to management and biodiversity

Temperate grasslands provide various cultural ecosystem services that are appreciated in diverse ways. Capturing these diverse appreciations requires different methodological approaches, such as questionnaire surveys and social media analyses. In this study, we combined the potential of both approaches to capture two aspects of what people appreciate in Swiss agricultural grasslands, i.e., the aesthetic quality of differently managed plant communities and the objects frequently found in grassland-based social media images. The two complementary approaches showed that people preferred colourful flower- and species-rich grasslands over grass-dominated and fertilised swards. This appreciation can be predicted from automatic image analysis. Social media analysis highlighted that people mainly photographed flowers, followed by livestock and/or wildlife, but this depended also on the social media platform accessed. In addition, we found differences between (i) conservationists and agricultural professionals in the aesthetic appreciation of the plant communities, as well as between (ii) common visitors and naturalists in their social media content. In conclusion, people's appreciation was clearly related to the intensity of grassland management and the level of biodiversity, with a preference for extensively managed grasslands with diverse flowers and wildlife. Our results suggest that extensive management and ecological restoration can be used to increase cultural grassland ecosystem services by enhancing the richness of forbs, flowers and other attractive wildlife. Thus, targeted management can maintain and enhance the attractiveness of grassland landscapes and subsequently support health benefits, opportunities for recreation, agrotourism as well as culture and heritage