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What is the impact of nature on human health? A scoping review of the literature

Rachel m nejade.

1 Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London, London, UK

Daniel Grace

2 Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board, NHS Wales, Swansea, UK

Leigh R Bowman

Associated data.

The burden of non-communicable diseases (including poor mental health) is increasing, and some practitioners are turning to nature to provide the solution. Nature-based interventions (NBIs) could offer cost-effective solutions by reconnecting individuals with nature, but the success of these interventions depends partially on the way in which people engage with blue and green spaces.

We conducted a scoping review in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) and Cochrane guidelines to establish the evidence base for treating poor mental and physical health with NBIs. We searched five databases and the grey literature. Exposure was the active engagement with natural environments. The primary outcome was mental health and the secondary outcome was physical health defined using established metrics. All data were extracted to a charting table and reported as a narrative synthesis.

952 studies were identified, of which 39 met the inclusion criteria. 92% demonstrated consistent improvements across any health outcome where individuals engaged with natural outdoor environments. Mental health outcomes improved across 98% of studies while physical and cognitive health outcomes showed improvement across 83% and 75% of studies respectively. Additionally, we identified 153 factors affecting engagement with nature, 78% of which facilitated engagement compared with 22% that reduced engagement. Aspects such as the sense of wilderness, accessibility, opportunities for physical activity and the absence of noise/ air pollution all increased engagement.

Conclusions

Further research (accompanied by a global improvement in study design) is needed to establish the magnitude and relative effect of nature-based interventions, and to quantify the compounding effect of factors that improve engagement with green and blue spaces. Nevertheless, this review has documented the increasing body of evidence in support of NBIs as effective tools to improve mental, physical, and cognitive health outcomes, and highlighted key factors that improve engagement with the natural world.

Registration

Open Science Framework: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/8J5Q3 .

It is estimated that 10% of the global population lives with a diagnosed mental health disorder, leading to negative health and economic impacts for both individuals and the broader society [ 1 ]. Of those affected, 10%-20% are children, half of whom are already suffering from a mental disorder by the age of 14 [ 2 , 3 ]. Neuropsychiatric and developmental disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are particularly common [ 4 ], while depression and anxiety are more prevalent among adults [ 1 ]. As individuals age into retirement, the risk of mental health illnesses increases, partly due to social exclusion, loneliness, changes to physical health, and the passing of friends and relatives [ 5 ]. If population estimates are correct, the global fraction of those aged >60 years will have increased from 12% to 22% by 2050 [ 5 ]. In the absence of effective interventions, the global burden of poor mental health will continue to climb.

In financial terms, the combined direct and indirect cost of mental health disorders across the UK in 2013 was estimated at between £70-100 billion annually [ 6 ]. Within the European Union (EU), these costs were estimated to be around €798 billion each year [ 7 ]. Worldwide, governments and international agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) have responded to the mental health epidemic by increasing funding for mental health research and services [ 8 , 9 ], yet first-line treatment for conditions such as depression, ADHD, and generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) still rely heavily on medications and psychotherapeutic treatments, such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) [ 10 , 11 ]. Although these strategies are often effective, medications come with a long list of potential side effects [ 12 , 13 ], not to mention financial barriers to access [ 14 , 15 ]; there are also often shortages of skilled mental health practitioners to match the demand for long-term individualised CBT.

In contrast to medicated interventions, there has been renewed interest in “natural” therapies, which are seen as less intrusive and more cost-effective [ 16 ]. Meditation, lifestyle changes such as increased physical exercise, community-based activities and engagement with natural environments are emerging as potential alternatives to complement or replace other forms of treatment [ 16 - 18 ]. Indeed, there is growing evidence suggesting that nature-based health interventions (NBIs) can improve mental and physical health outcomes while also addressing the growing demand for less intrusive and more cost-effective treatments [ 16 , 19 ]. However, challenges exist; NBIs must take place in natural outdoor environments (NOEs), defined as “any environment in which green vegetation or blue water resources can be found”, access to which is becoming increasingly difficult [ 20 , 21 ]. Indeed, many geographical, financial, and cultural barriers affect the way we interact with NOEs, and without significant changes to the way humans live, they will likely be compounded by increasing migration away from wild spaces, and further concentration of human populations within urban areas, where 68% of the world’s population is expected to reside by 2050 [ 22 ].

Through conducting a scoping review, we aimed to set a baseline for the impact of NBIs on mental and physical health outcomes and to help with understanding the factors that magnify or diminish engagement with NOEs.

Aim and objectives

We aimed to collate and assess the evidence base for NBIs and to define and assess the effect of enablers on engagement with natural outdoor environments. More specifically, we intended to locate and review the evidence base for nature-based interventions for mental and physical health outcomes, identify the enablers of, and barriers to, engagement with natural outdoor environments, and understand whether these enablers and barriers impact the effectiveness of nature-based interventions on mental and physical health outcomes.

Study design

We conducted this scoping review according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines, and the Cochrane guidelines for scoping reviews [ 23 , 24 ]. A scoping review was considered the most appropriate method to answer the research question, due to its capacity to answer broad questions and summarise findings from a heterogeneous body of knowledge [ 25 ].

Study protocol

The protocol for this scoping review was drafted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis Extension for Protocols (PRISMA-P) and was revised by the academic team [ 26 ]. It was disseminated through MedRxiv, the preprint server for health sciences on July 4, 2020 [ 19 ].

Search strategy

The search includes terms relating to NBIs: a) green care, b) blue care, c) mental health, d) physical health, e) environmental determinants of NOE use, and f) socio-economic determinants of NOE use. The primary outcome of interest was mental health, defined using a number of key metrics. The secondary outcome was physical health, based on a number of physiological variables [ 27 ]. Several NBI studies have used physical health measures either as the main outcome (eg, obesity) or as an objective measure to confirm mental health outcomes obtained from self-reporting (eg, the link between stress and cortisol) [ 28 - 50 ]. All the keywords used for the literature search can be found in Figure S1 in the Online Supplementary Document .

The terminology used in the literature search for green and blue care reflects the varied positions held by researchers and the lack of consensus surrounding their application.

We used the search terms to identify studies from the following five databases: PubMed, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Scopus, and OVID (including Embase, PsycINFO, Global Health, MEDLINE, Health Management Information Consortium (HMIC), Transport Database). All search terms were grouped using the Boolean “OR” and were then all combined using the Boolean “AND”, to produce the final number of relevant studies identified by each database. We also performed snowballing (or the search of reference lists from included articles). To limit the effect of publication bias, we searched grey literature through Google Scholar, and governmental and institutional websites (eg, Public Health England (PHE)). Mendeley and the Covidence software were used to store, organise, and manage all references. To promote transparency and ensure reproducibility, the full search strategy used for the PubMed database is available in Table S1 in the Online Supplementary Document .

Study selection criteria

The study selection was done based on the pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria and conducted in two stages: 1) title and abstract screening, and 2) full-text screening. If a dispute occurred on the inclusion of a study, a decision was made on the inclusion/exclusion when a consensus was achieved. We backtracked existing reviews so that any study included in both the existing review and our study was excluded from our analysis. Duplicates were removed from the search before the article screening.

As this is an emerging field, we kept the inclusion criteria for this scoping review intentionally broad. We included human studies and peer-reviewed articles on green spaces and blue spaces, with physical or mental health outcomes. Any study design was accepted. NOE exposure was based on participants’ presence in nature, whether that was confirmed through participants’ observation, interviews in nature, or through an intervention using activities in NOEs. We included any review including at least one study for which NOE exposure was confirmed by these means.

Considering the contemporary topic of this scoping review, the search included all results from 1980 onwards. Studies written in both English and French were included. We excluded any studies or reviews not pertaining to health, green spaces, and blue spaces, or that were solely descriptive in nature (eg, commentaries) and studies that only defined NOE exposure based on geospatial indicators (eg, normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI)). To avoid complexities associated with recall bias, we excluded any study that used self-reported measures of engagement with nature (eg, “number of visits to parks in the last week”) [ 51 , 52 ]. However, this restriction was not applied to our main outcomes when these were found in studies using self-reporting scores such as GAD-7 and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), as the validity of these measures to assess mental or physical health outcomes has been widely accepted within the scientific community. Additionally, this exclusion criterion would also have greatly reduced the number of available studies [ 28 - 50 ]. The full inclusion and exclusion criteria can be found in Figure 1 .

Inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Data extraction and analysis

We performed data extraction (or charting) using a standardised data extraction form, adapted for this scoping review to address the research questions and objectives (Table S2 in the Online Supplementary Document ). Content analysis was used to group findings in categories based on similarities to create a narrative synthesis of the existing evidence informed by the data charting process.

Study Selection

The results of the literature search across the five databases and the grey literature were reported using a PRISMA flow diagram ( Figure 2 ). From the original 952 articles, 824 unique studies were identified for title and abstract screening, after the removal of 128 duplicates. Through title and abstract screening, 352 full-text articles were selected and downloaded for a full-text review (ie, eliminating 472 studies). 313 studies failed to meet the inclusion criteria at full-text screening (reasons detailed in Figure S2 in the Online Supplementary Document ). A total of 39 articles were selected for the final analysis [ 53 - 91 ].

PRISMA flow diagram.

Descriptive characteristics

A summary of each charted study can be found in Table S3 in the Online Supplementary Document . A total of 39 studies were included in the final analysis, 11 of which were observational, seven used qualitative methods [ 55 - 57 , 60 , 74 , 83 , 84 ], three used quantitative methods [ 63 , 85 , 88 ], and only one used mixed methods [ 75 ]. Among the 14 interventional studies, only one used qualitative methods [ 66 ], nine used quantitative methods [ 58 , 59 , 61 , 62 , 64 , 65 , 67 , 81 , 91 ], and four used mixed methods [ 53 , 54 , 87 , 89 ]. Finally, among the remaining 14 reviews, ten included systematic reviews [ 70 - 72 , 76 - 79 , 82 , 86 , 90 ], one was a scoping review [ 80 ] and three were literature reviews [ 68 , 69 , 73 ]. All studies were written in English, except for one that was written in French [ 82 ]. Additionally, all studies were carried out in the past five years, with the oldest study dating back to 2015 [ 57 ].

Most studies (85%) were conducted in higher-income countries (defined using the World Bank classification based on countries’ gross national income (GNI) per capita) [ 92 ]. Few studies were conducted in upper-middle-income countries: one observational study in Mexico [ 88 ], two interventional studies from China [ 67 ] and South Africa [ 61 ], and three reviews including Chinese [ 76 , 82 ] and Bulgarian studies [ 76 , 80 ] ( Figure 3 ).

Bar chart depicting the countries included in reviews, interventional and observational studies, grouped by study design.

Twenty out of the 39 studies (51%) assessed the effects of engagement with NOEs on mental and physical health across all age groups, with only ten studies (26%) focusing specifically on adults (18-60 years) [ 54 - 56 , 58 , 59 , 62 , 63 , 67 , 81 , 91 ], four (10%) on the elderly (age 60+) [ 57 , 73 , 74 , 83 ], as well as four (10%) on children [ 53 , 66 , 72 , 88 ] and one (3%) on adolescents (11 to 18 years) [ 61 ].

Overall, eight studies (20%) selected participants based on age group [ 53 , 57 , 61 , 72 , 74 , 76 , 86 , 88 ], two (5%) based on sex (in favour of women) [ 62 , 91 ], and six (15%) from volunteering [ 54 , 59 , 63 , 67 , 81 , 84 ]. Four other studies (10%) recruited local residents [ 58 , 60 , 65 , 75 ]. Moreover, eight studies (20%) included patient populations with pre-existing conditions [ 90 ]. These looked at people with autism [ 66 ], neurological disabilities [ 73 , 78 ], mental disorders [ 75 , 84 , 87 ], or those undergoing stroke rehabilitation [ 64 ]. Notably, some studies selected participants based on their existing use of natural environments, such as regular swimmers or members of outdoor associations in blue spaces [ 55 , 56 , 83 ], or through involvement in the conservation of green spaces [ 89 ]. Finally, eight reviews (20%) did not specify any sample populations [ 68 - 71 , 77 , 79 , 80 , 82 ].

Taxonomy for natural outdoor environments

Overall, three types of NOEs were identified across all studies: green spaces (51% (n = 20)), blue spaces (13% (n = 5)), and a mix of both (36% (n = 14)).

Green spaces encompassed both urban and rural environments, and most studies described green spaces as urban parks [ 57 , 62 , 65 , 69 , 74 , 82 , 85 , 88 , 91 ], natural environments [ 63 , 68 , 70 , 72 , 86 ], urban forests [ 53 , 62 , 78 , 81 ], or as gardens [ 64 , 73 , 74 , 78 ]. Other areas or features of green spaces were used less often, such as farms [ 53 , 66 , 78 ], micro-features [ 57 , 74 ], national parks or reserves [ 60 , 89 ], a game reserve [ 61 ], urban stream corridors [ 55 ], playgrounds [ 72 ], meadows [ 54 ], bogs [ 89 ], or neighbourhood greenness [ 77 ]. Similarly, blue spaces also covered urban and rural environments and were characterised by the terms: sea [ 56 , 90 ], blue environments [ 70 , 86 ], river [ 53 ], fountain/ seawall [ 74 ], coastal area [ 59 ], loch [ 61 ], wetlands [ 87 ], wilderness [ 90 ], ocean and beaches [ 83 ]. Finally, grey areas were typically considered as urban environments: urban city [ 54 , 62 , 65 , 91 ], built environment [ 58 , 79 ], urban sidewalk [ 59 ], shopping mall [ 62 ], hospital [ 64 ], urban landscape [ 72 ], roadside [ 81 ], home [ 91 ], swimming pools [ 83 ], and a field near a housing development [ 89 ].

Nature-based health interventions

All NBIs and their related activities reported across the selected studies were categorised ( Figure 4 ). Six types of NBI were identified: educational intervention, physical activity, wilderness therapy, leisure activity, gardening, and changes to the built environment.

All types of nature-based health interventions found in the selected studies. Green – green spaces, blue – blue spaces, and yellow – both green and blues spaces.

Health outcomes and nature-based interventions

All reported outcomes and their associated enablers are listed in Table S4 in the Online Supplementary Document . Almost all of the studies included at least one mental health outcome [ 53 , 54 , 56 - 66 , 68 - 87 , 89 - 91 ], except for three that focused solely on physical activity [ 55 , 88 ] and cardiovascular outcomes [ 67 ]. Many studies used multiple outcomes, and each of these is reviewed and discussed in the following order: mental health outcomes, physical health/physiological outcomes, and cognitive health outcomes.

Overall, there are clear positive trends between NOE engagement (through voluntary participation or primary care intervention) and psychological, physical, and cognitive health outcomes (described in Figure 5 by the bars labelled “positive findings”). In applicable studies [ 56 , 73 - 75 , 83 , 87 ], a decrease in the measurable outcome was considered a “positive finding” where this resulted in a gain for the individual eg, a reduction in social isolation. The studies displayed as “negative findings” refers to studies where health outcomes led to mixed or no positive effects [ 59 , 70 , 71 , 76 , 81 , 82 , 87 , 91 ].

Percentage of positive and negative findings stratified by health outcomes.

Mental health

Mental health was the most commonly studied outcome (62%). There were improvements across all mental health outcomes when engaging with nature (98%), with only one study reporting no effect (2%) [ 71 ]. No negative effects were found.

Engagement with NOEs led to an improved quality of life in 4% of all studies looking at mental health outcomes, as assessed by measures of Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) [ 53 , 64 ] or Quality of Life (QoL) surveys [ 69 , 86 ]. Only one study reported improved “perceived mental health” (ie, restoration) of stream-corridor users, assessed using qualitative interviews [ 57 ]. Outcomes related to measures of well-being were the most studied ones and were usually positively associated with NOE engagement. It was measured differently across studies and relied on measures of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being [ 71 ], perceived well-being [ 56 , 73 - 75 , 83 , 90 ], and general well-being [ 54 , 58 , 63 , 68 , 71 , 76 , 86 , 87 ]. Only one systematic review reported mixed effects, which the authors attributed to poor study design and quality [ 71 ]. Finally, measures of depression [ 63 , 65 , 78 , 80 ] and anxiety [ 64 , 65 , 78 , 81 , 87 ] decreased when engaging with NOEs.

There was also a positive effect of NOE engagement on measures of emotional health outcomes across all studies. Most reported improved affect [ 58 , 64 , 70 , 73 , 81 - 83 , 86 , 87 ], mood [ 62 , 65 , 79 , 80 , 89 , 91 ], self-esteem [ 61 , 73 , 80 , 84 , 90 ], self-confidence [ 75 ], and vitality [ 62 , 66 ]. Others reported decreases in negative affect [ 63 , 81 , 83 , 86 ], mood disturbances [ 65 ], agitation [ 73 , 78 ], and behavioural problems (eg, hyperactivity or violence) [ 72 , 73 , 80 , 82 ].

Overall, engagement with NOEs led to improved social health across 100% of the fourteen studies that assessed their effects. Six studies reported reduced social isolation [ 56 , 73 - 75 , 83 , 87 ] and one found reduced social discomfort [ 91 ] following engagement with NOEs; seven noted increased social connectedness between individuals [ 66 , 68 , 78 , 82 - 84 , 90 ].

Finally, several studies assessed the effects of engagement with NOEs on stress. All studies reported positive associations with psychological resistance [ 54 , 56 , 90 ], perceived restoration [ 59 , 60 , 62 , 65 , 82 , 91 ], and stress reduction [ 54 , 63 , 66 , 73 , 81 - 84 , 89 ]. Only one study found a decrease in psychological distress [ 80 ], and three found decreases in perceived stress [ 63 , 86 , 87 ], which all translated into health benefits.

Physical/physiological health

83.3% of the studies considering physical and physiological health outcomes found benefits across a range of outcomes; 16.7% yielded no or negative effects for measures of obesity [ 70 , 76 , 82 , 87 ], heart rate [ 65 ], systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) [ 67 ], and heart rate variability (HRV) (2%) [ 79 ].

All measures of physical activity in natural environments demonstrated that engaging in NOEs led to increased physical activity. This was measured in several ways. Some studies used measurements of leisure-time physical activity [ 55 ] or reported use after urban green spaces interventions [ 69 , 74 , 82 ]. Others focused on increased exertion post-engagement with NOEs, using measures of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) [ 79 , 88 ]. Similar methodologies used measures of perceived physical activity [ 56 , 57 , 68 ] and physical fitness [ 90 ], or more broadly an increase in the use of NOEs for various activities like swimming [ 56 ] or walking in nature [ 60 , 76 ]. Finally, decreasing sedentary time was used as a measure in children populations [ 88 ].

One systematic review assessed the effect of engagement with green spaces on sleep during a walking intervention and found that engagement led to improvements in sleep quality and quantity [ 77 ]. Similarly, one study reported improved recovery from mental disorders after engaging in therapeutic horticulture as part of a recovery program [ 75 ].

Motor functioning was assessed differently by two studies [ 64 , 74 ]. Ottoni et al. [ 74 ] reported improved mobility after walking interventions in green spaces, while Pálsdóttir et al. [ 64 ] reported reductions in disability after engaging in horticulture therapy for post-stroke patients. Overall, improvements in disability were reported in both intervention and control groups, suggesting that the therapy itself may facilitate recovery more than the type of environment [ 64 ].

All studies measuring physical health outcomes found a positive association between physical health and NOE engagement when measured by GHQ [ 72 , 80 , 87 ]. Pálsdóttir et al. [ 64 ] used post-stroke fatigue (PSF) as their main outcome, which decreased following horticulture therapy. Importantly, both the intervention and control groups experienced decreases in PSF, thereby reducing the importance of the intervention in this context over other mainstream standards of care.

Four studies reported little to no effects on obesity (measured using body mass index) after engagement with NOEs [ 70 , 76 , 82 , 88 ]. Regarding mortality, only two studies investigated how NOE engagement affected all-cause mortality [ 70 , 79 ]. Both studies found a decrease in mortality following changes to the built environment [ 70 ] and after engaging in physical activity in nature [ 79 ].

Cardiovascular health was measured using diastolic and systolic BP [ 62 , 65 , 67 ], baseline resting heart rate [ 54 , 65 , 67 , 69 ], and HRV [ 62 , 79 , 91 ]. Heart rate was found to decrease in 80% of studies looking at this measure, except for one [ 65 ]. Similarly, BP was found to decrease in three studies, except for one by Ana et al. [ 67 ], which found no changes in BP after forest bathing. Results were also inconclusive for HRV, which tended to increase after NOEs exposure in two studies [ 62 , 91 ], but had no effects in another [ 79 ].

Physiological measures of stress were determined using cortisol samples; in two studies, there was a decrease in cortisol levels after engaging in NOEs [ 62 , 82 ].

Cognitive health

Although not initially included, cognitive health outcomes were identified on several occasions (8%) during the analytical process and were considered important for this review. Overall, NOE engagement had positive effects on cognitive health (58%), by reducing ADHD symptoms (8%) [ 72 ], and by improving cognitive functioning (50%) [ 53 , 54 , 66 , 72 , 79 ], except in one study (8%) [ 59 ]. Findings on memory were inconclusive (32%) [ 72 , 78 , 81 , 91 ].

Cognitive functioning was reported using measures of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)-capacity [ 53 ], attention restoration [ 54 , 72 ], and attention retention [ 59 , 66 , 79 , 82 ]. In 86% of these studies, cognitive functioning was positively associated with NOE engagement, except for one study which reported no change in attention retention [ 59 ]. However, attention retention was improved after exposure to natural environments in three studies [ 66 , 79 , 82 ], along with attention restoration [ 54 , 72 ]. One study also showed an improvement in children’s STEM-capacity following a nature-based education (NBE) intervention [ 53 ].

Memory was only assessed in four studies and yielded mixed findings [ 72 , 78 , 81 , 91 ]. While one found a positive association between spatial working memory and engaging in NOEs [ 72 ], the other found no effects [ 91 ]. Similarly, for executive functioning, one study found no effects [ 81 ], while the other saw improvements in executive memory [ 78 ].

During a wilderness expedition, trained therapists noticed a decrease in ADHD symptoms for children living with autism after exposure to animals and the natural environment [ 66 ] – which was supported by McCormick [ 72 ] in her systematic review.

Engagement with natural outdoor environments

Several factors influencing engagement were identified throughout the selected studies. These factors were divided into those that facilitated engagement (enablers ( ~ 78%)), vs those that hindered engagement (barriers: (22%)) ( Figure 6 ). These included environmental, social, individual, and structural processes, along with opportunities for physical activity and stress reduction. Poor study design and quality were considered barriers across all studies. A description of each enablers’ category can be found in Figure S3 in the Online Supplementary Document .

Number and percentage of enablers and barriers for each health outcome. Enablers in green; barriers in orange.

Environmental processes

Most enablers focused on environmental processes (38%), the most common being the type of environment (66%), where natural environments facilitated health benefits over built environments (ie, swimming pools, city centres, shopping malls, etc.) [ 53 - 56 , 58 , 59 , 62 , 63 , 65 - 67 , 70 , 72 , 73 , 77 - 84 , 86 - 91 ]. Although the variety of green space and blue space descriptors makes comparing studies difficult, some studies have found that urban forests were better than urban parks, as they reduced cortisol levels [ 62 ], BP [ 54 , 62 , 65 ], and heart rate [ 62 , 67 , 79 ], while increasing HRV [ 62 , 91 ]. Interestingly, one study even found that heart rate benefits were amplified if that forest was made of maple trees as opposed to birch or oak trees, while BP would not change if the temperature, humidity, and light spectrum (ie, green/blue light ratio) were too high [ 67 ]. Similarly, blue space users preferred wilder and more available water environments (eg, ocean) as they amplified psychological health benefits through increases in well-being and social health benefits by reducing social isolation [ 56 , 83 ].

Typically, biodiversity was shown to facilitate well-being [ 87 ], psychological restoration [ 85 ], social connectedness [ 87 ], positive affect [ 83 ], and overall health [ 87 ], while reducing anxiety [ 87 ] and stress [ 87 ]. Notably, biodiversity may also present a barrier if perceived as threatening or harmful (for example, due to the presence of sharks in blue spaces [ 83 ]). Other environmental processes such as good weather [ 83 ], heat reduction [ 70 ], seasons [ 65 ], perceived aesthetics [ 68 ], nature connectedness [ 58 , 71 ], the presence of farm animals for autistic children [ 66 ], and sensory qualities of the environment (ie, sound) [ 59 , 60 ] were all found to also improve mental, physical, physiological and cognitive health; however, other detrimental environmental processes such as air and noise-related pollution [ 62 , 76 ] negated these positive effects.

Structural processes

Structural processes were the second most common enablers discussed in this scoping review (37%). Among them, good accessibility was most commonly reported (24%), as it facilitated improvements in perceived mental health [ 57 ], overall health [ 72 ], positive affect [ 70 ], physical activity in NOEs [ 55 , 57 , 74 , 82 ], and attention restoration [ 72 ], while reducing social isolation [ 74 ], motor disability [ 74 ], behavioural problems, and psychological distress [ 80 ]. Similarly, geographic proximity to NOEs was also mentioned several times (11%) as facilitating well-being [ 76 ], physical activity [ 60 , 69 , 76 ], cognitive functioning and spatial working memory [ 72 ].

The type of intervention was also reported by six studies (16%) as facilitating the health benefits gained from engaging in NOEs. Britton et al. [ 83 ] and Ottoni et al. [ 90 ] recognised that activities in blue spaces, such as surfing or swimming, contribute to rehabilitation, stress reduction, and health promotion, and complementary evidence demonstrates that therapeutic horticulture led to improvements in PSF [ 64 ] and reductions in agitation for older adults [ 74 ]. Additionally, viewing nature decreased BP [ 62 ] and improved executive memory [ 78 ]. Interestingly, the outcomes improved with increases in the length of the activity [ 53 , 61 , 87 , 88 ]. One study found that activities performed in the afternoon instead of the morning improved sleep quality and quantity, believed to be caused by a two-process model where sleep and waking are regulated by circadian rhythms and homeostasis [ 77 , 93 ]. Good group organisation, transportation, and staff attitudes and knowledge were also considered enablers of the associations between health and nature [ 87 ]. However, when NBIs have limited resources, the strength of these associations is reduced [ 73 , 90 ], and hence, good NBI quality and design can amplify the health benefits gained from nature.

The quality and design of NOEs were also found to amplify health benefits when engaging with nature, as the presence of micro-features of the environments (eg, benches) was found on several occasions to improve well-being and self-esteem while reducing social isolation and stress in individuals with dementia [ 73 ]. Older adults also found that benches could help decrease social isolation [ 74 ] and improve their mobility and physical activity in NOEs [ 74 ]. Other studies also found general increases in physical activity and positive affect when these features were present [ 55 , 70 , 80 ]. Overall, positive changes to the environment through the implementation of micro-features were found to facilitate engagement in NOEs.

Individual processes

Most individual processes across the selected studies were considered barriers (74%) as opposed to enablers (26%).

Safety concerns were the most common barriers to engaging in NOEs (24%), as they worsened perceived mental health [ 57 ], positive affect [ 70 , 73 ], perceived restoration [ 60 ], physical activity [ 55 , 57 ], well-being and self-esteem [ 73 ] while increasing social isolation and stress [ 73 ]. Stigma was another recurrent barrier found across studies (12%) that diminished perceived well-being [ 73 , 90 ], physical activity [ 56 ], physical fitness, social connectedness and psychological resistance [ 90 ], as well as positive affect and self-esteem [ 73 ], while increasing social isolation [ 73 ] and stress [ 73 ].

Other barriers such as social prejudice [ 73 ], fear [ 56 , 90 ], negative self-perceptions [ 57 , 73 ], poor self-confidence [ 73 ], individual factors (eg, time pressure, changing identities) [ 74 , 77 ], and deprivation [ 80 , 84 ] were also detected. Conversely, some individual processes were found to facilitate the relationship between nature and health. These included cognitive functioning [ 72 ], some intrapersonal processes (ie, individual preferences) [ 68 ], gender (whereby women tended to benefit more than men) [ 61 , 74 ], and age (since younger adults and children had increased health benefits from engaging in NOEs due higher engagement in physical activity than older adults) [ 82 ].

Lower socio-economic status (SES) and ethnicity were identified as both enablers and barriers. While one study found that being South Asian and living in the UK led to worse health outcomes than being British white [ 80 ], another found that Arab women benefited more than Jewish women when engaging in NOEs [ 91 ]. The latter was thought to be influenced by levels of comfort at home, where Jewish women reported feeling more comfortable in their home than Arab women did and therefore gained fewer marginal improvements than Arab women when engaging in NOEs [ 91 ]. Similarly, lower SES was found to increase health gains through NOE engagement [ 82 ], whereas another found it led to worse health outcomes [ 76 ].

Opportunities for physical activity

Opportunities for physical activity were the third most frequent enabler found across studies (11%). They included physical activity (72%) and active engagement in NOEs (18%), as both were found to magnify the benefits for mental health [ 56 , 58 , 63 , 71 - 73 , 75 , 79 - 82 , 89 ], physical health [ 56 , 72 , 75 , 80 ], physiological health [ 79 ], and even cognitive health [ 72 , 78 , 79 ]. However, these benefits would be reduced if participants were injured or had mobility difficulties [ 74 , 78 ]. Physical activity could therefore be another mechanism by which nature positively influences health.

Social processes

Social processes were not as common as other enablers (7%), but were found to influence the nature’s impact on health. The presence of other people was the most common enabler (29%) and barrier (29%) across studies considering social processes. Indeed, two studies reported that sharing the experience of engaging in NOEs with others could facilitate gains in physical activity [ 55 ], recovery from mental disorders [ 75 ], social connectedness, self-esteem, and self-confidence [ 84 ] while reducing social isolation [ 75 ]. However, if other individuals were perceived as safety risks, well-being and physical activity would decrease, while stress would increase [ 63 ].

Additionally, social interactions, interpersonal processes, group membership, and the presence of caregivers also facilitated positive gains in psychological [ 68 , 78 , 89 ], social [ 68 , 83 ] and physical health [ 68 , 89 ]. Therefore, social processes are other mechanisms through which health benefits can be gained from nature.

Opportunities for stress reduction

Despite abundant evidence from the literature review, only 1% of all enablers focused on opportunities for stress reduction. Stressful life events were perceived as barriers, as they decreased the quality of life, well-being, positive affect, psychological resistance, and STEM capacity for children [ 52 , 63 ], while worsening depression in adults [ 63 ]. However, engaging in NOEs was shown to reduce stress in all studies looking at stress-related outcomes, considered measures of psychological health in this review [ 53 , 63 , 66 , 73 , 81 - 84 , 89 ]. Therefore, evidence for stress reduction as a mechanism in the relationship between health and nature is moderate, but not as conclusive as other enablers.

Study quality and design

Methodological choices when conducting studies (9%), such as the study design (44%), study quality (44%) or the choice of measurements (12%) were all found to negate the relationship between health and nature across selected studies [ 59 , 70 , 71 , 76 , 81 , 82 ]. They were responsible for the lack of evidence between NOE engagement and obesity [ 70 , 76 , 82 ], well-being [ 71 ], HRV [ 79 ], and on measures of memory [ 81 ] and cognitive functioning [ 59 ]. Therefore, the methods used within studies also act as potential mechanisms on nature and health.

This scoping review synthesised heterogeneous research documenting the impact of nature on health. Of the 39 included studies, nature-based interventions were found to have improved mental, physical/ physiological and cognitive health outcomes across 98%, 83%, and 75% of articles, respectively ( Figure 5 ). Furthermore, this study identified a breadth of factors that affect the level of engagement with NOEs, and by extension the likely success of nature-based interventions ( Figure 7 ).

Impact of natural outdoor environment (NOE) engagement and enablers on health.

Nature-based interventions and health

As a species, humans have become increasingly sedentary. Offices, schools, homes, and public spaces have been designed to optimise and prioritise efficiency. At least in part, this relatively new lifestyle (by historical standards) is driving an increase in non-communicable diseases, including poor mental health [ 94 ]. As individuals continue to seek work in urban areas, the opportunity to interact with green and blue spaces diminishes. Current estimates indicate that over 50% of people worldwide live in urban areas projected to increase to >68% by 2050 [ 22 , 95 ].

Considering this, it is not surprising that the reintroduction of nature into a person’s life, irrespective of baseline physical and mental health characteristics, can have a positive influence [ 96 ]. Research shows that individuals living in urban areas with more green space have both lower mental distress and higher well-being scores [ 97 ]. “Forest-bathing” (“shinrin-yoku” in Japanese) in Japan has been shown to significantly lower salivary and serum cortisol levels when compared to control groups [ 98 ], while Niedermeier et al. [ 99 ]f ound that hiking resulted in a statistically significant increase in “affective valence” (ie, pleasure) when compared to a sedentary control group and an indoor exercise group.

One theory that might begin to explain these mechanisms is that, when in natural outdoor environments, individuals experience a reduction in “rumination” – a maladaptive pattern of self-referential thought that is associated with heightened risk for depression and other mental illnesses [ 95 ]. Indeed, data suggest this might be plausible: functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning performed on individuals who had spent 90 minutes on a nature walk showed reduced neural activity in the subgenual prefrontal cortex (sgPFC) – an area of the brain that displays increased activity during sadness and rumination. However, participants who went on an urban walk did not show these effects [ 95 ].

Such data makes clear the physiological responses that NBIs elicit in humans, and while further granular data are required, the mounting body of evidence generally supports nature-based interventions for the prevention and treatment of physical/ mental health ailments. Indeed, science is beginning to inform public health policy via the introduction of “green prescriptions”, which are clinically prescribed NBIs for treating physical and mental health disorders [ 100 , 101 ].

The broad evidence base uncovered by this scoping review demonstrates the positive impact of NBIs on mental, physical, and cognitive health outcomes. Indeed, the findings support national policies that integrate NBIs as effective preventative and curative tools for public health [ 16 , 19 , 100 , 101 ].

Factors impacting engagement with natural outdoor environments

Biodiversity and wilderness.

Our findings on the importance of biodiversity and wilderness as drivers of impactful NOE engagement provide support for a broader interconnectedness between humans and wild spaces. This applies to all projects at any scale, from school expeditions through urban greening to broader rewilding. Enabling interaction with NOEs through accessibility (both geographic proximity and improved infrastructure) magnifies the health benefits of NOEs [ 55 , 57 , 60 , 69 , 70 , 72 , 74 , 76 , 80 , 82 ] and facilitates interaction between the public and natural ecological systems [ 102 ], promoting greater understanding and awareness of nature’s importance. The creation and maintenance of long-distance trails [ 102 ], increasing the sense of “wild” in urban green spaces [ 83 , 85 , 87 ], and a departure from meticulous park management [ 55 , 70 , 73 , 74 , 80 ] are examples of practices that result in increased “quality”, accessibility, and biodiversity, leading to plausible health gains through greater NOE engagement [ 55 , 70 , 73 , 74 , 80 , 83 , 85 , 87 , 102 ]. This recommendation fits within the broader International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) vision for human interactions and ecosystem health to “[…] protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems, that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits” [ 103 ].

Air and noise pollution

Our findings also support wider initiatives targeting reductions in air and noise pollution, as these were found to negatively impact the time that users would spend practising physical activities in NOEs [ 62 , 76 ]. Cleaner, greener environments would also encourage physical exercise and contribute to national and global targets to mitigate climate change [ 62 , 76 , 104 ]. Indeed nature-based initiatives, such as de-pollution and re-naturalisation of urban sites, are currently under consideration by the EU Commission as methods to achieve an increase in the number of publicly available green spaces, and reverse social inequalities [ 104 , 105 ].

Socio-economic status and stigma

Cultural and ethnic differences, as well as deprivation, were found to limit the health benefits gained from engagement with NOEs. Minority groups living in more deprived areas with poorer access to, and lower quality of, green spaces, had more behavioural difficulties than non-minority groups [ 80 , 91 ]. Despite mixed findings in this review [ 76 , 82 ], existing inequalities concerning access to urban green infrastructure remain, along with inequalities in the exposure to health hazards (eg, air and noise pollution), particularly for vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly, and individuals of lower socio-economic status [ 106 ]. These inequalities are well-documented in urban areas across many European countries and likely exist globally, highlighting the need for urban greening initiatives that work towards reducing social barriers to access, and increasing the use of green and blue environments [ 106 , 107 ].

Geographic proximity and opportunities for physical activity

The sedentary lifestyle characterising modern society has also led to a clear reduction in physical activity across age groups [ 102 ]. As regular physical activity has been shown to reduce certain health risks (such as cardiovascular diseases or symptoms of depression and anxiety), health agencies such as the WHO have urged governments to promote physical activity to their populations as a way to limit the growing burden of ill health [ 27 , 108 ].

The results from this review support the need for enhanced engagement in physical activity, especially when practised in green or blue environments, as these environs likely magnify the mental, physical and cognitive gains. Importantly, structural enablers such as good accessibility [ 55 , 57 , 74 , 82 ] and closer geographic proximity to NOEs [ 60 , 69 , 76 ] led to increased physical activity. This is important for policymakers, as it highlights the need to consider access and proximity to green and blue spaces when designing health interventions that promote physical activity.

Limitations

Methodologically, the exclusion of studies based on self-reported measures of exposure (eg, number of visits in the last month) could have precluded the inclusion of additional relevant studies to this review. However, this was deemed necessary to limit the inherent risk of recall bias in these studies, which could have impacted the strength of the results. The absence of critical appraisal of individual sources of evidence precluded the possibility for our results to lead to statistically significant conclusions. Nevertheless, scoping reviews as per PRISMA-ScR guidelines do not necessarily require a critical appraisal of the evidence for structural integrity; as a minimum, they promote a stronger evidence base [ 23 ].

The comparison between health outcomes and types of green spaces or blue spaces was made difficult due to the variety of terms used to describe these areas. Similarly, for nature-based interventions, direct quantitative comparisons were difficult due to the absence of magnitudes, relative effects, varied heterogeneous study designs, and sample sizes.

CONCLUSIONS

Further research is still needed to establish the magnitude and relative effect of nature-based interventions, as well as to quantify the compounding effect of factors that improve engagement with green and blue spaces. This must be accompanied by a global improvement in study design. Nevertheless, this review has documented the increasing body of heterogeneous evidence in support of NBIs as effective tools to improve mental, physical and cognitive health outcomes. Enablers that facilitate greater engagement with natural outdoor environments, such as improved biodiversity, a sense of wilderness, and accessibility, as well as opportunities for physical activity and an absence of pollution, will likely improve health outcomes and further reduce public health inequalities.

Additional material

Acknowledgments.

Ethics statement: All data used were from published, secondary sources. No ethical clearance required.

Data availability: All data are available directly within the article or as supplementary data. The original research protocol is available on Open Science Framework https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/8J5Q3

Funding: This project was undertaken as part of an Imperial College London MSc thesis. No funding was allocated. The Article Processing Charge was funded by Imperial College Open Access Fund.

Authorship contributions: Conceptualisation, L.R.B.; methodology, L.R.B., R.M.N. and D.G.; data curation, R.M.N and D.G.; formal analysis, R.M.N.; visualisation R.M.N.; supervision L.R.B. and D.G., project administration L.R.B.; funding acquisition, none. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Disclosure of interest: The authors completed the ICMJE Disclosure of Interest Form (available upon request from the corresponding author) and disclose no relevant interests.

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Massive biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s, Stanford Medicine researchers find

Time marches on predictably, but biological aging is anything but constant, according to a new Stanford Medicine study.

August 14, 2024 - By Rachel Tompa

We undergo two periods of rapid change, averaging around age 44 and age 60, according to a Stanford Medicine study. Ratana21 /Shutterstock.com

If it’s ever felt like everything in your body is breaking down at once, that might not be your imagination. A new Stanford Medicine study shows that many of our molecules and microorganisms dramatically rise or fall in number during our 40s and 60s.

Researchers assessed many thousands of different molecules in people from age 25 to 75, as well as their microbiomes — the bacteria, viruses and fungi that live inside us and on our skin — and found that the abundance of most molecules and microbes do not shift in a gradual, chronological fashion. Rather, we undergo two periods of rapid change during our life span, averaging around age 44 and age 60. A paper describing these findings was published in the journal Nature Aging Aug. 14.

“We’re not just changing gradually over time; there are some really dramatic changes,” said Michael Snyder , PhD, professor of genetics and the study’s senior author. “It turns out the mid-40s is a time of dramatic change, as is the early 60s. And that’s true no matter what class of molecules you look at.”

Xiaotao Shen, PhD, a former Stanford Medicine postdoctoral scholar, was the first author of the study. Shen is now an assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University Singapore.

These big changes likely impact our health — the number of molecules related to cardiovascular disease showed significant changes at both time points, and those related to immune function changed in people in their early 60s.

Abrupt changes in number

Snyder, the Stanford W. Ascherman, MD, FACS Professor in Genetics, and his colleagues were inspired to look at the rate of molecular and microbial shifts by the observation that the risk of developing many age-linked diseases does not rise incrementally along with years. For example, risks for Alzheimer’s disease and cardiovascular disease rise sharply in older age, compared with a gradual increase in risk for those under 60.

The researchers used data from 108 people they’ve been following to better understand the biology of aging. Past insights from this same group of study volunteers include the discovery of four distinct “ ageotypes ,” showing that people’s kidneys, livers, metabolism and immune system age at different rates in different people.

Michael Snyder

The new study analyzed participants who donated blood and other biological samples every few months over the span of several years; the scientists tracked many different kinds of molecules in these samples, including RNA, proteins and metabolites, as well as shifts in the participants’ microbiomes. The researchers tracked age-related changes in more than 135,000 different molecules and microbes, for a total of nearly 250 billion distinct data points.

They found that thousands of molecules and microbes undergo shifts in their abundance, either increasing or decreasing — around 81% of all the molecules they studied showed non-linear fluctuations in number, meaning that they changed more at certain ages than other times. When they looked for clusters of molecules with the largest changes in amount, they found these transformations occurred the most in two time periods: when people were in their mid-40s, and when they were in their early 60s.

Although much research has focused on how different molecules increase or decrease as we age and how biological age may differ from chronological age, very few have looked at the rate of biological aging. That so many dramatic changes happen in the early 60s is perhaps not surprising, Snyder said, as many age-related disease risks and other age-related phenomena are known to increase at that point in life.

The large cluster of changes in the mid-40s was somewhat surprising to the scientists. At first, they assumed that menopause or perimenopause was driving large changes in the women in their study, skewing the whole group. But when they broke out the study group by sex, they found the shift was happening in men in their mid-40s, too.

“This suggests that while menopause or perimenopause may contribute to the changes observed in women in their mid-40s, there are likely other, more significant factors influencing these changes in both men and women. Identifying and studying these factors should be a priority for future research,” Shen said.

Changes may influence health and disease risk

In people in their 40s, significant changes were seen in the number of molecules related to alcohol, caffeine and lipid metabolism; cardiovascular disease; and skin and muscle. In those in their 60s, changes were related to carbohydrate and caffeine metabolism, immune regulation, kidney function, cardiovascular disease, and skin and muscle.

It’s possible some of these changes could be tied to lifestyle or behavioral factors that cluster at these age groups, rather than being driven by biological factors, Snyder said. For example, dysfunction in alcohol metabolism could result from an uptick in alcohol consumption in people’s mid-40s, often a stressful period of life.

The team plans to explore the drivers of these clusters of change. But whatever their causes, the existence of these clusters points to the need for people to pay attention to their health, especially in their 40s and 60s, the researchers said. That could look like increasing exercise to protect your heart and maintain muscle mass at both ages or decreasing alcohol consumption in your 40s as your ability to metabolize alcohol slows.

“I’m a big believer that we should try to adjust our lifestyles while we’re still healthy,” Snyder said.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (grants U54DK102556, R01 DK110186-03, R01HG008164, NIH S10OD020141, UL1 TR001085 and P30DK116074) and the Stanford Data Science Initiative.

• Rachel Tompa Rachel Tompa is a freelance science writer.

About Stanford Medicine

Stanford Medicine is an integrated academic health system comprising the Stanford School of Medicine and adult and pediatric health care delivery systems. Together, they harness the full potential of biomedicine through collaborative research, education and clinical care for patients. For more information, please visit med.stanford.edu .

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How rural communities relate to nature in sub-saharan regions: perception of ecosystem services provided by wetlands in south-kivu.

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Géant, C.B.; Wellens, J.; Gustave, M.N.; Schmitz, S. How Rural Communities Relate to Nature in Sub-Saharan Regions: Perception of Ecosystem Services Provided by Wetlands in South-Kivu. Sustainability 2024 , 16 , 7073. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16167073

Géant CB, Wellens J, Gustave MN, Schmitz S. How Rural Communities Relate to Nature in Sub-Saharan Regions: Perception of Ecosystem Services Provided by Wetlands in South-Kivu. Sustainability . 2024; 16(16):7073. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16167073

Géant, Chuma B., Joost Wellens, Mushagalusa N. Gustave, and Serge Schmitz. 2024. "How Rural Communities Relate to Nature in Sub-Saharan Regions: Perception of Ecosystem Services Provided by Wetlands in South-Kivu" Sustainability 16, no. 16: 7073. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16167073

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Nature Aging, Nature Reviews Methods Primers and Nature Computational Science will join Springer Nature’s portfolio starting January 2021

London | New York | Berlin, 21 April 2020

Three new journals will be launched under the Nature Research imprint at the beginning of 2021. The motivation for launching these journals, as well as their focus and structure, reflects the specific needs of research communities. The journals aim to foster cross disciplinary research and provide venues for such work that is not well served by other journals.

Nature Aging will publish high-quality articles spanning the entire spectrum of research into aging, from the biology of aging and longevity to the socio-economic challenges and opportunities associated with global population aging. The scope of the journal addresses some of the key challenges highlighted through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), for example, health and well-being (SDG3), reduced inequalities (SDG10) and sustainable cities and communities (SDG11).

“Life expectancy is increasing worldwide, with the number of people 60 and over expected to double by 2050.* As the elderly comprise 12% of the global population, but bear 23% of the disease burden worldwide,** it is becoming ever more important to research and promote healthy aging, and ensure financial security and long-term care for the elderly,” explained Sebastien Thuault, Chief Editor of Nature Aging .

Nature Reviews Methods Primers will be the second Primers journal in the Nature portfolio and is headed by Chief Editor Dominique Morneau. This special article type provides readers with an overview of a scientific method and its application to different research questions. All articles in the journal will be commissioned and will cover analytical, applied, statistical, theoretical, and computational methods used in the life and physical sciences. Publication of the journal will be weekly.

Nature Computational Science will be led by Fernando Chirigati and focuses on the development of new computational methodologies and their application to address real, complex problems across a range of scientific disciplines. Integral to the editorial strategy of this journal will be the use of code peer review through the integration of a platform that enables code deposition and review, Code Ocean. To further enable the early sharing of research  the journal will actively support the deposition of preprints prior to submission, and include clear signposting from the original article to its associated preprint.

All three titles will be published online-only, and for submissions from January 2021 Nature Aging and Nature Computational Science will be Transformative Journals . This means that Plan S-funded authors, and others wishing to publish open access, can submit their primary research to these journals safe in the knowledge that they will be complying with their funders’ requirements.  Like all Nature-branded journals, the new launches will be operated by a team of professional editors who oversee the careful selection, commissioning, fair and rigorous peer-review, accurate editing, rapid publication and broad dissemination of primary research and  commissioned content.

Ruth Wilson, Publishing Director of Nature Journals, Nature Research and BMC, said: “At Springer Nature we stay grounded in the needs of our communities, which means listening to them and providing the content and solutions they need to make real and sustainable progress. In 2021, the new Nature-branded journals we are launching will serve a wider range of researchers than we have in any previous launch years. All three titles are multidisciplinary, and will not only help advance science and medicine, but will teach researchers best practice methods across a range of disciplines. We are especially pleased that these journals explore both fundamental and applied research.

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Why Kids Should Nature Journal at All Grade Levels

A 2023 review makes a strong case that hands-on observation of natural phenomena has both academic and psychological benefits.

In 1831, a young Charles Darwin embarked on a five-year voyage aboard the HMS Beagle , tracking along the coast of South America and making stops at the Cape Verde Islands, the rainforests of Salvador de Bahia, and the Galápagos Islands. Armed with his notebook and pencil, Darwin—having just earned a bachelor’s degree studying botany at Cambridge—was eager to begin documenting the exotic wildlife of the land.

“Most people pay little attention to what’s going on around them, and do not seek to see further ahead,” writes University of Oporto biologist João Paulo Cabral . “Darwin’s curiosity, on the other hand, had no limits.”

What started as a convenient method for recording his observations—his field notes and sketches span over 300 specimens in 15 notebooks—soon became the catalyst for charting the minutiae of species diversity, as Darwin meticulously unearthed patterns that wouldn’t be obvious to the casual observer. The unique beak adaptations of the Galápagos finches, for example, paved the way for a famously era-defining breakthrough.

Today’s scientists-in-training, by contrast, “mostly learn about photosynthesis by rote” and rarely touch actual flowers in the process, according to a 2017 study . Studying the shape and function of a stamen, petal, or pistil introduces young students to textbook concepts of living systems, taxonomies, and classifications, but removed from nature, kids experience an approach to scientific learning that may curtail a sense of wonder and curiosity.

Encouraging students to wander with notebooks and pencils, paying attention to “the tiniest flowers in the grass and other bits of nature that usually go overlooked,” on the other hand, can slow them down, calm their nerves, and engage them in rigorous, purposeful academic work. “Nature journaling is an effective way for life science teachers to get adolescents outside and incorporate nature studies into their lessons,” explains high school biology and environmental science teacher Jennifer Bollich in a 2023 review , noting that it connects them to “the native plants and animals that share their spaces” and has “positive educational, environmental, and psychological effects on adolescents,” including a reduction in stress and anxiety.

Building Scientific and Cognitive Skills

Nature journaling—sketching and annotating observations about natural phenomena—also builds crucial cognitive and processing skills like close observation, technical illustration, attention to detail, critical thinking, and the ability to organize and categorize information. “These connections reach across the disciplines to make learning more cohesive and increase overall brain development to improve learning in multiple areas of the curriculum,” explains Bollich.

When sketching and annotating in a journal, students process information in multiple ways, leading to deeper comprehension and more durable memories. 

In a 2018 study , for example, researchers concluded that drawing is “an effective and reliable encoding strategy, far superior to writing”—largely because it forces students to actively process information across several modalities: semantic, kinesthetic, and visual. Ask a student to write down the parts of a flower—petal, pistil, and stem, for example—and the information will be quickly forgotten. Drawing a flower you’ve found and labeling parts and asking questions, however, encodes the material more deeply, resulting in richer, longer-lasting memories. In the study, the researchers found that students who visually represented science concepts like isotope and spore were nearly twice as likely to recall the information than students who simply wrote down the definitions.

To get students moving from the general to the more specific, high school English teacher Tanner Jones asks students to jot down 20 adjectives or phrases to describe the natural object they’re focused on. “At first, many offer broad observations like ‘The leaf is yellow,’” Tanner explains. “But as they spend more time and run out of obvious things to say, the observations become more nuanced and even beautiful: ‘The leaf is a heart with veins receding in size from the central stem.’” With time, students sharpen their observation and analytical skills, opening the door to complex inquiries such as, “Why do leaves turn yellow in the autumn?” and “What happens to this leaf after it snows?”

Connecting to Nature and Natural Rhythms

“Despite evidence for the benefits of the outdoors, the amount of time children are spending outdoors is in rapid decline,” researchers observe in a 2022 study , noting that children today spend less than half as much time outdoors as their parents did. Teenagers now spend an average of eight and a half hours each day watching television, playing video games, and using social media—activities that take a toll on their mental and emotional well-being, according to a Yale study published last year.

Schools, meanwhile, are slowly cutting off outdoor learning opportunities, as “insurance restrictions and the reduction of recess lengths coalesce to keep kids indoors,” Bollich writes.

The upshot is that students are disconnected from nature and often feel apathetic about their local ecosystems. Nature journaling can be an effective antidote, helping young people “become familiar with the plants and animals that live near them, with the potential to increase their curiosity about these species,” suggests Bollich.

For elementary school teacher Sarah Keel, nature journals connect her students to the natural world. “The use of nature journals can be empowering for students as it helps increase their awareness of nature, gives them a sense of their place in their world, and encourages future conservation behaviors,” she writes . During a journaling activity, Keel asks students to find an outdoor “sit spot”—in a school garden, playground, home backyard, city park—and spend 20 to 30 minutes making observations. Prompts such as “What do you see, hear, or smell?” and “Did you observe any plant and animal interactions?” can help students get started.

A Breath of Fresh Air

“Students who learn outdoors perform better on standardized tests, are more engaged and motivated to learn, and are more focused on their work even when back indoors,” writes James Fester, a former social studies teacher and current teacher trainer. “Exposure to the natural world is associated with lower levels of stress, lower anxiety, and better overall social and emotional health.” 

Researchers have long observed that learning in natural settings lends itself to a form of creative, student-directed play that is often absent in classrooms. A 2020 meta-analysis concluded that “nature play had positive impacts on developmental outcomes for children, particularly in the cognitive domains of imagination, creativity, and dramatic play.” Studying a neatly rendered diagram of a tree or bird in a textbook tends to produce a detached appreciation that’s at odds with how Darwin approached scientific inquiry. Not only are students more likely to be “smiling and laughing” in natural spaces, but they’re also more imaginative and more willing to collaborate with their peers, the researchers found.

How can you get started? Your first foray into nature journaling doesn’t have to be a major expedition, and you don’t have to be a wildlife expert to lead a successful trip, says fifth-grade science teacher Pete Barnes.

Nearby trees, rocks, and bushes are teeming with life, and kids will be quick to notice. “Students marvel at the smallest of natural encounters—spotting a frog, running alongside a butterfly, or discovering a beetle beneath a log,” Barnes writes . Give them a chance, and they’ll take to it quickly, at virtually all grade levels.

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• CAREER COLUMN
• 09 August 2024

Why I’ve removed journal titles from the papers on my CV

• Adrian Barnett 0

Adrian Barnett is a researcher in health and medicine at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Omitting journal names in your CV could help to prioritize the quality of your science over the prestige of the publication. Credit: Nature

Can you name the journal in which microbiologist Alexander Fleming first reported on the antibacterial properties of penicillin? Or where engineer John O’Sullivan and his colleagues presented the image-sharpening techniques that led to Wi-Fi?

Most of you can easily name the benefits of these breakthroughs, but I expect only a few would know where they were published. Unfortunately, in modern scientific culture, there is too much focus on the journal — and not enough on the science itself. Researchers strive to publish in journals with high impact factors, which can lead to personal benefits such as job opportunities and funding.

But the obsession with where to publish is shaping what we publish. For example, ‘negative’ studies might not be written up — or if they are, they’re spun into a positive by highlighting favourable results or leaving out ‘messy’ findings, to ensure publication in a ‘prestigious’ journal.

Illuminating ‘the ugly side of science’: fresh incentives for reporting negative results

To shift this focus in my own practice, I have removed all the journal names from my CV . Anyone interested in my track record will now see only my papers’ titles, which better illustrate what I’ve achieved. If they want to read more, they can click on each paper title, which is hyperlinked to the published article.

I’m not alone in thinking of this. The idea for removing journal names was discussed at a June meeting in Canberra on designing an Australian Roadmap for Open Research . A newsletter published by the University of Edinburgh, UK, no longer includes journal titles when sharing researchers’ new publications, to help change the culture around research assessment. Celebrating the ‘what’ rather than the ‘where’ is a great idea. This simple change could be extended to many types of research assessment.

Quality over journal titles

It is disorienting at first to see a reference that does not contain a journal title, because this bucks a deeply ingrained practice. But journal names are too often used as a proxy for research excellence or quality. I want people reading my CV to consider what I wrote, not where it was published, which I know is sometimes attributable to luck as much as substance.

Of course, anyone who really wants to judge me by where I’ve published will simply be able to google my articles: I haven’t anonymized the journals everywhere. But removing the names in my CV discourages simplistic scans, such as counting papers in particular journals. It’s a nudge intervention: a reminder that work should be judged by its content first, journal second.

Because I’m a professor on a permanent contract, it’s easier for me to make this change. Some might think that it would be a huge mistake for an early-career researcher to do the same. But there is no stage in our scientific careers at which decisions about hiring and promotion should be based on the ‘where’ over the ‘what’. It would be easier for early-career scientists to make this change if it became normalized and championed by their senior colleagues.

A potential criticism of removing journal names is that there is nothing to stop unscrupulous academics from publishing shoddy papers in predatory journals to create a competitive-looking CV, which could put candidates with genuine papers at a disadvantage. Promotion and hiring committees need to be made aware of the growing problem of faked and poor-quality research and receive training on how to spot flawed science.

However, when a job gets 30 or more applicants, there can be a need for short-cuts to thin the field. I suggest that reading the titles of each applicant’s ten most recent papers would work better than any heuristic based on paper counts or journal names, for only a slight increase in workload.

Imagine a hiring or fellowship committee that receives plain or preprint versions of the every applicant’s five best papers. Committee members who previously relied on simplistic metrics would have to change their practice. Some might simply revert to Google, but others might welcome the challenge of judging the applicants’ works.

Judging researchers is much more difficult than counting impact factors or citations, because science is rarely simple. Simplistic promotion and hiring criteria ignore this wonderful complexity. Changing typical academic CV formats could bring some of it back.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-02596-y

This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their professional experiences and advice. Guest posts are encouraged .

Competing Interests

A.B. is a member of the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Research Quality Steering Committee, which provides national guidance on good research practice. A.B. is paid for his time to attend committee meetings. A.B. was on the organizing committee for the Policy Roundtable: An Australian Roadmap for Open Research meeting, which is mentioned in the article, and received paid accommodation to attend the meeting.

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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Nature play in early childhood education: a systematic review and meta ethnography of qualitative research.

• 1 Department of Education, Thomas More University of Applied Sciences, Rotterdam, Netherlands
• 2 Department of Educational and Family Studies, Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• 3 LEARN! Research Institute, Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• 4 Department of Education, University of Applied Sciences Leiden, Leiden, Netherlands

Play in nature-based environments in childhood education has positive benefits for child development. Although previous reviews showed the benefits of play in nature-based environments for child development they did not attempt to understand how and why nature-based environments contribute to play quality. This review aims to explore the value of play in nature-based environments compared to non-nature-based environments for developmental outcomes of young children (2–8 year). We searched for studies that investigated the relation between play and nature-based environments on the databases PsycINFO, ERIC, and Web of Science. Inclusion/exclusion criteria were: (1) the study focused on play in/on a nature based environment, (2) the study included participants between the age of 2–8 years, (3) it was an empirical study, (4) the study was conducted in the context of early childhood education (ECE), and (5) the study included participants without special needs or disabilities. Using these criteria we selected 28 qualitative studies with an overall sample size of N = 998 children aged 2–8 years. The studies were synthesized using an adaptation of Noblit and Hare’s meta-ethnographic approach. Three overarching themes were found: (1) the aspects of play quality that are related to nature-based environments, (2) the aspects of nature-based environments that support play, and (3) the aspects of teacher-child interactions that contribute to nature play quality. The meta themes resonate with play theories and theories of the restorative value of nature. We draw on the qualitative data to refine and extend these theories, and to come up with a definition of the concept “nature play.” This systematic review also sets a base for future research on play interventions in nature-based environments. We argue that (1) research will benefit from thoroughly conceptualizing the role of play in the development of young children, (2) using the affordances theory research will benefit from moving beyond the individual play actions as a unit of analysis, and (3) from an educational perspective it is important to shift the focus of nature play to its benefits for children’s cognitive development.

Introduction

In early childhood education (ECE), play and learning are inextricably intertwined ( Hirsh-Pasek, 2008 ). Play is often considered as a context for young children’s learning and development, and can take place indoors (e.g., in a classroom) as well as outdoors (e.g., in a nature-based environment). However, outdoor play in ECE is often done for its value to relax and recover from the important play and learning time that takes place indoors. As a result, in ECE play in outdoor settings is not often valued for its potential benefits for children’s learning development ( Miranda et al., 2017 ). Recently, many studies have focused on play and learning in nature-based environments. Based on these studies, this review aims to explore the value of play in nature based environments in ECE. The research for this review was guided by the following question: what is the value of play in nature-based environments compared to non-nature-based environments for developmental outcomes of young children (2–8 year).

Play as a context for child development, three perspectives

In most cultural communities, play is a major aspect of children’s life ( Roopnarine, 2012 ). Most play researchers agree on the importance of play in early childhood. In fact, play is seen as a key element of child development because it is the context for the development of cognition (including language), motor skills and social-emotional competence ( Rubin et al., 1983 ; Golinkoff et al., 2006 ; Nathan and Pellegrini, 2010 ).

To affirm the importance of play, in Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child ( United Nations, 1989 ) play is viewed as a fundamental need and right of children. This need for and right to play needs to be respected in the lives of young children. Consequently, article 31 challenges us to understand play from the perspective of children’s needs and rights.

Before play ended up as a fundamental right in the Children’s Rights Treaty, the critical role of play has been studied by many scholars using different theoretical frameworks. According to Wynberg et al. (2022) , roughly three theoretical perspectives can be distinguished. First, Piaget describes in Play, Dreams and Imitation in Childhood ( Piaget, 2013 ), how children incorporate objects and events of the world around them in their play, creating a mental model of the world. In this genetic epistemology perspective, children’s level of cognitive development is reflected in types of play (functional and constructive play, symbolic/fantasy play and games with rules). Piaget’s theory of cognitive development suggests four phases in which intelligence changes as children grow. For early childhood the first three are relevant: children (0–12 year) grow from sensorimotor intelligence (e.g., children understand the external world only by sensing and touching objects that are present), into preoperational intelligence (e.g., during this period children are thinking at a symbolic level but are not yet using cognitive operations, they still need to act in the external world to perform these operations) into concrete operational intelligence (e.g., children can use logic and transform, combine and separate concepts on a mental level) In this way, children’s play can be classified on the basis of their cognitive development, but children’s play is not seen as a context for new development. Therefore, this theoretical perspective does not explain how children’s play quality and the physical environment are related.

Secondly, in contrast to Piaget’s view that play reflects the actual level of children’s cognitive development, in Vygotsky’s cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), play is considered a social activity in which children meet and interact with the social cultural environment. With help of parents, educators and peers, children gain in play a driving force for further cognitive, social-emotional, and motor development ( Nicolopoulou, 1993 ).

Leontiev advanced Vygotsky’s theory by differentiating play actions from play activity. Play actions are performed to achieve a single goal. A play activity is a set of related play actions that meet children’s need to get to know the world around them and be able to contribute to it. Their play activity derives its meaning from the satisfaction of fulfilling this need, which is the motive for their activity. However, the goal of a play action does not necessary coincide with the motive of the activity. In fact, the single goal of an action often comes apart from this motive. For instance, children in a nature-based environment collect sticks (action) to build a pretend bonfire (activity) to fulfill their need to get the feel of making a bonfire (not because they were cold or needed to cook).

Within CHAT, tool use is an important aspect of play activity. Tools help children to fulfill their need and these (symbolic) tools link the action (collecting sticks) to their motive (getting to know bonfires by pretending to make one). In other words, children are motivated by these tools. In the play context, tools have agency to achieve goals ( Bodrova and Leong, 2015 ; Wynberg et al., 2022 ) and motivation to use the tools is what makes children act, think and develop ( Nicolopoulou, 1993 ; Deci and Ryan, 2008 ; Bakhurst, 2009 ). As a result of engaging in play, the perceptual world–i.e., the world the child meets through perceptually interacting with it–becomes a conceptual world of meaning and value. In this process, the child develops the mental power to understand the (meaning of) the world that surrounds him/her. The perceptual world invites or affords play activity ( Bakhurst, 2009 ). In the example of children building a bonfire, the sticks mediate between the perceptual and conceptual world, children use their mental power to imagine the real fire and the heat that comes from it, while building the bonfire and gathering around it. Although CHAT accounts for the role of the physical environment in children’s play, the environment is mostly viewed as situated in a socio-cultural environment.

Thirdly, Gopnik (2020) describes childhood from an evolutionary perspective as a time for the human mind to explore the unpredictable range of human possibilities. To develop the capacity to navigate the perceptual world, in other words to get the feel or hang of it, children actually have to feel the world and hang around in it. During childhood, children are especially prone to explorative and “active” learning. While involved in messy and intuitive play actions, children gather new information about the world around them, learning and adapting without using adult intelligence, such as planning or focused attention. Instead, they get involved with all their senses to imagine even far-away and unlikely hypotheses, such as using objects during play in a creative way, not being hindered by experience of the usual function of the object ( Gopnik and Wellman, 2012 ; Schulz, 2012 ; Wente et al., 2019 ). Within the evolutionary perspective childhood is an extended time for exploration of an environment that is variable, with a mix of predictability and unpredictability. In the same way as the CHAT, within the evolutionary perspective the focus is on cultural learning, i.e., obtaining information from other humans and not so much from the interaction with the nature-based environment.

Although these three perspectives differ in focus and methodology, they all acknowledge play as important for child development. During play children find out the meaning of the world that surrounds them, including the physical world, and learn how they can interact with it. In this way they develop as human beings with cognitive, social, emotional, and motor competencies.

Defining play

In this review, we focus on play and how the quality of play might be supported by the physical environment where children play. Therefore, we need a definition to distinguish play behavior from other behavior. As we have seen in the literature on play there is no defining key factor that connects all actions that are recognized as play actions. In the Oxford handbook of the development of play , Burghardt (2012) comes up with a set of five criteria that characterize the play of all animals: (1) It is not fully functional in the form in which it is expressed; play actions can look functional but the actions do not contribute to survival; (2) It is spontaneous, voluntary, intentional, pleasurable, and done for the sake of playing; (3) Play differs from functional behavior in structure or timing in at least one respect: incomplete, awkward, and precocious; (4) It is performed repeatedly but not in a stereotyped way; and (5) It is initiated when the animal is “relaxed”: well fed, warm and safe. These five criteria partly overlap with the dispositions described by Rubin et al. (1983) . They define play as: (1) intrinsically motivated; (2) for the sake of play(ing); (3) deriving pleasure from it, and; (4) having the freedom to modify the rules within the play ( Rubin et al., 1983 ). For this review, we will combine the aforementioned criteria and include all behaviors that can be classified as a child’s interaction with the environment, while being highly involved, intrinsically motivated, deriving pleasure from it, and having the freedom to modify the rules (cf., Rubin et al., 1983 ).

The quality of the physical environment in relation to play quality

The physical environment where children play is part of their play. The value of explorative and active play is directly related to both the complexity of the physical environment and the opportunity to incorporate the environment in play ( Gopnik, 2020 ). In other words, an environment not only serves as a play décor, but it also serves as a place that affords play. For example, findings from systematic reviews consistently demonstrate that a nature-based environment affords different play behavior compared to non-nature-based environments ( Gill, 2014 ; Dankiw et al., 2020 ; Zare Sakhvidi et al., 2022 ). How can this be explained?

The affordances theory of Gibson (2014) is a way to describe an environment in terms of the distinctive features that offer possibilities for play behavior for a child or a group of children. An affordance is something that refers to both the environment and the skills of a child at that moment. The affordance theory helps to understand why nature-based environments differ from non-nature-based environments. For instance, a tree can afford leaning for a 1-year old, hiding for a 5-year old and climbing for a 7-year old. Heft (1988) and Kyttä (2002) advanced the affordances theory into a functional taxonomy, by describing the distinctive functional properties of an environment, properties that are both objectively real and psychological relevant. It is a way to describe the setting, the person (the child with her skills at that moment) and the action as a “system.” According to Heft (1988) , the functional possibilities for meaningful play that children perceive in nature-based environments are different from the possibilities they perceive in non-nature-based environments.

In addition to the affordances theory to describe the assets of nature-based environments for play, two complementary theories from research on nature-based environments are related to aspects of play (quality) as well: the Stress Recovery Theory (SRT) and the Attention Restoration Theory (ART) ( Ulrich, 1983 ; Kaplan, 1995 ; Berto, 2014 ). SRT is a psycho-evolutionary theory that states that since humans evolved over a long period in natural environments, people are to some extent physiologically and perhaps psychologically better adapted to nature-based environments as to non-nature based environments. ART is a psycho-functionalist theory that states that humans have an innate predisposition to pay attention and respond positively to natural content (e.g., vegetation and water) and to settings that helped survival during evolution. Both theories state that nature-based-environments are more restorative than non-nature-based environments; according to SRT, nature-based environments relieve physiological stress whereas according to ART, nature-based environments restore mental fatigue. In this way nature-based environments contribute to play quality as we look at the criteria for play quality mentioned above: a child can only initiate play when it is relaxed, and play asks for involvement and attention.

Defining nature-based environments

As we see how the quality of the play activity of a child is intrinsically linked to the nature-based environment, we need a definition to distinguish a nature-based environment from other environments. As it is difficult to find one key factor to define play, there is also no such key factor that connects all environments recognized as nature-based environments. To describe such an environment the affordances theory of Greeno (1994) , Gibson (2014) , and Lerstrup and Konijnendijk van den Bosch (2017) makes it possible to look at an environment in terms of affordances. He described five affording features of an environment: (1) places, (2) attached and (3) detached objects, (4) substances, and (5) events. In this review, we use these features to distinguish nature-based environments from non-nature-based environments. Nature-based environments (1) have a surface (place) that is the basis for growth of living elements, (2) provide possibilities for interacting with living, non-man-made elements like plants, trees, and insects, (3) these living elements “provide” loose materials to play with, such as sticks, seeds, feathers, and shells (attached and detached “objects”), (4) non-living elements are part of a nature-based environment as these elements are connected to the biosphere of the living elements such as water, rocks, and soil (substances), and (5) weather elements such as fresh air, rain, wind and sunshine, or seasonal elements such as blooming or decay are the features that ensure change (events) ( Gill, 2014 ; Chawla, 2015 ; Dankiw et al., 2020 ).

The role of the teacher

For this review, we also investigated the role the teacher has in designing and/or choosing the play environment. The motivation and the capacity to be taught by the world is not totally innate. It needs to be nurtured and sustained by adults. Early childhood teachers are part of the play context and have a role in mediating between the child and the world. In this context they also have a role in the acquisition and use of language during play. While the perceptual world with its structure and rules becomes a conceptual world in play the acquisition and use of language makes it possible to store the concepts in the mind ( Huizinga, 2014 ). Most play theories agree on the role early childhood teachers have in guarding children’s play, enriching children’s play environment, and protecting children for dangers, but there is considerable debate on the question if and how adults should participate in children’s play activities ( van Oers, 2013 ).

Reason for this review

Reasoning from play theories and the environmental psychologist theories we might expect that nature-based play environments, as an indivisible part of children’s play actions, can contribute to children’s cognitive, social-emotional, and motor development.

In the last decade, many studies have been conducted into the relation between a healthy development of children and engagement in nature-based environments. Most of these studies have focused on health and physical activity. The reviews of Gill (2014) , Chawla (2015) , and more recently Dankiw et al. (2020) have provided overviews of the benefits of nature for children’s development. These reviews were focused on children between 1 and 12 years old. First, the systematic review of Gill showed the benefits of children’s engagement with nature on mental health as well as physical activity. Second, Chawla’s work was not so much a systematic review but a thorough reflection on research into the benefits of nature contact for children. She placed the research in the context of changing research approaches, thus showing how different research questions and methods shape our understanding of the benefits of access to nature for children. Third, Dankiw’s review investigated the impacts of children’s engagement with unstructured nature play, finding that unstructured nature play may have a positive impact on different aspects of child development. By focusing on developmental outcomes of quantitative studies, this study did not attempt to understand how or why unstructured nature play is related to these positive outcomes. A systematic review of qualitative studies can synthesize findings and advance the knowledge base of how nature-based environments contribute to play quality. Synthesizing the fragmented literature will contribute to a useful resource for guiding future research on this topic and inform early childhood educational practices, valuing nature-based play environments as intrinsically linked to play quality.

We systematically reviewed studies into play in nature-based environments in ECE. These studies may contribute to our understanding of the experiences of children and teachers in ECE when going outside to play in nature- based environments. Moreover, these experiences set out a basis for understanding the possibilities of playing in nature-based environments for cognitive, social-emotional, and motor development in ECE. We reviewed studies in early childhood educational settings since in these settings play is an important part of the curriculum.

The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines ( Page et al., 2021 ) was adopted for the purposes of the present review. A PRISMA checklist is provided in Supplementary File 1 .

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Articles were included if they met the following selection criteria:

(1) The study focused on play in/on a nature based environment (studies were excluded if the exposure to nature was not specified as “interaction” or “play” or if the environment where the children played did not match our criteria of nature based environments as stated in our introduction).

(2) The study included participants between the age of 2–8 years.

(3) It was an empirical study.

(4) The study was conducted in the context of ECE (studies were excluded if they were not conducted in a center for ECE, such as day care centers and preschools).

(5) The study included participants without special needs or disabilities.

Databases and search query

Databases PsycINFO, ERIC, and Web of Science were used to identify studies that investigated the relation between play and nature-based environments. To ensure the quality of the studies we only included empirical studies that were published in peer-reviewed journals. Furthermore studies written in English that were published between May 1995 and 2022 were included. We combined keywords on the two major concepts of this review: play and nature-based environments. To ensure a comprehensive search the following keywords were used for play or activity: manipulative play, object play, relational play, block play, loose part play, outdoor play, free play, unstructured play, rough and tumble play, explorative play, creative play, construction play, physical play, gross motor play, role play, pretend play, social play, imaginative play, socio dramatic play, social pretend play, as if play or physical activity, unstructured activity, explorative activity, physical activity, construction activity, and gross motor activity. For the nature-based environment, the following keywords were used: green or natural environment, playground, landscape playscape setting area or space, school garden, school forest, school wetland, school wilderness, school grassland, greenery, garden, forest, wetland, wilderness, grassland, tree cover, tree canopy, biodiverse school ground, and nature based. Boolean operators were used to ensure that each possible combination of keywords was included. The search query is provided in Supplementary File 2 .

Selection procedure

The primary search resulted in a selection of 5,961 articles. Next, duplicates were removed, and titles, abstracts, and keywords of the remaining articles were manually screened. Many studies in this first selection were either in the field of environmental science or health, and did not concern playing children. After removing the studies that obviously did not meet our selection criteria we assessed 166 articles for eligibility. We excluded 107 studies for reasons of age. We also screened studies with participants between 2 and 8 years as well as participants beyond this age. We did not include them because it was impossible to decide if the results were specific for the group of children between 2 and 8 years. A random selection of twenty articles of the 166 articles were checked with two researchers, both members of a research group performing a systematic review in the field of ECE. They checked if the article met the criteria of our definition of play and nature based environment as stated in our introduction. Quality appraisal was made through the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Critical Appraisal Tool for Qualitative Studies ( Lockwood et al., 2020 ) (see Supplementary File 2 ). Using this tool we were surprised by the innovative and creative ways these studies adapted to respect the voice of young children. We ended up with a final selection of 28 studies with an overall sample size of N = 998 children aged 3–8 years. See Figure 1 for an overview of the study selection process.

Figure 1. Study selection process.

Data extraction and synthesis

The selected studies were analyzed and synthesized in four steps based on Noblit and Hare’s meta-ethnography method and adapted for this study ( Agar, 1990 ; Noblit and Hare, 2012 ; Nye et al., 2016 ): Step 1: The studies were read and re-read to gain a detailed understanding of their theories and concepts and their findings according to the following categories: (1) Design/method, (2) theories and conceptualization, and (3) outcomes. Supplementary Table 1 gives an overview of the 28 studies, specified according to these categories. To retain the meaning of the primary concepts within individual studies and to define the relations between these concepts we developed codes regarding the experiences of children and teachers while playing in nature-based environments during ECE (i.e., authors’ interpretation of the data and “second order constructs”).

Step 2: In order to determine how the studies were related, the initial codes were grouped according to key aspects of (1) play quality, (2) the nature-based environment, and (3) the teacher-child interactions. These key concepts from individual studies were synthesized, which resulted in lists of overarching themes for each of the three groups (see Figure 2 ).

Figure 2. Meta-synthesis of key concepts into three themes and two Meta-themes.

Step 3: Studies were translated into one another to produce “meta-themes” across the different aspects of play in nature-based environments. To draw out the findings under each meta-theme, some studies were chosen as “index” papers from which we extracted findings. These index papers stood out in terms of their conceptual richness. Their findings were then compared to and contrasted with the findings of a second study, and the resulting synthesis of these two studies were then contrasted with a third study, and so forth. This is referred to as “reciprocal translation” ( Noblit and Hare, 2012 ; Nye et al., 2016 ). For example Lerstrup and Konijnendijk van den Bosch (2017) advanced Gibsons and Hefts theory of affordances and functional classes of outdoor features into “key activities” afforded by classes of the outdoor environment. These new concepts were used for the translation of concepts from other papers that were related but not conceptualized in this way.

Step 4: The meta-themes from step 3 were synthesized according to aspects of quality of ECE. Via interpretive reading of these meta-themes we developed a “line of argument” synthesis regarding the value of play in nature-based environments for improving developmental outcomes of ECE. This is presented in the discussion.

Meta method analysis

During step 1 we analyzed the study designs of the 28 included studies. The studies into play in nature-based environments in ECE all aimed to get more insight into the relation between children’s play and nature-based environments in ECE. The studies aimed to study a myriad of educational outcomes, such as physical activity, cognitive, social-emotional, and motor development as well as health. The relevance of these studies is motivated by concerns about changes in the practice of playing outside as healthy practice for young children’s physical and mental wellbeing. Opportunities for outdoor play have diminished drastically since the mid-20th century, due to cultural changes such as parental control and fear, inadequate access to outdoor playgrounds, screen time and the focus on cognitive development in ECE.

The studies included in the present review can all be characterized as small-scale studies using observations of play behavior in nature-based environments and interviews with teachers and children to explore their experiences of playing in nature-based environment. Participating early childhood settings in the studies were sampled based on their outdoor play practices including the design of their playgrounds. These studies can be divided into two groups: one that compared play on a nature-based (part of the) playground to play on (part of the) traditional designed playground and one that compared forest school practice to indoor/outdoor classroom practice.

In all studies, except for one, the sample size was given and ranged between N = 4 and N = 198, with a total of N = 998 and a mean of N = 36. Twelve of the studies had a sample size of < N = 20, 13 had a sample size between N = 20 and N = 100, one study had a sample size of N = 198, and one had a sample of teachers N = 63 teachers. One study did not specify the sample size. The relatively small sample sizes of most studies can be explained by the fact that the studies had an explorative and qualitative research design.

Seventeen studies used play observations describing different aspects of the relation between children’s play behavior and nature-based outdoor environments, to get more insight in how children use outdoor environments during outdoor play activities. In most studies these observations were characterized as phenomenological, ethnographical, and participatory. Blanchet-Cohen and Elliot (2011) for instance described how participatory observation was a primary method of listening to young children in unmediated ways to get insight in how the children used the nature based environment. In the studies of Moore et al. (2019) and Dyment and O’Connell (2013) observation was done by using event sampling or taking scans with an observation tool, making it easier to observe a higher number of participants.

In the studies where children’s views on their outdoor play experiences were explored, a mosaic approach was used to get insight into the views of young children, using arts-based data techniques while interviewing children. These studies were inventive and respected the way young participants are able to express their own views. For example, in the study of Streelasky (2019) , drawings, paintings, and photographs were used during child interviews to support them in expressing their views. In the study of Moore et al. (2019) , the children gave a tour around the yard to express their views on the value of the nature-based environment. Four studies also collected data from teachers, to explore their views and their interaction with children when playing outside in nature-based environments.

Although most studies used open observations to investigate the play activities of the children, some used validated instruments, such as the system for Observing Play and Leisure Activity in Youth (SOPLAY). This system is used by Fjørtoft (2001) as well as by Dyment and O’Connell (2013) and is a way to label children’s activities, for instance to assess the diversity of their activities, but it does not capture how these activities are related to the play environment. Another way to assess the quality of the play activities is in terms of involvement, freedom, and joy. In two studies, the Leuven Child Involvement Scale was used to analyse children’s play in terms of involvement and joy. Other studies ( Luchs and Fikus, 2013 , 2018 ; Morrissey et al., 2017 ) used the duration of the play episodes as a measure of the quality of the play: The longer children played, the higher the quality of their play episode.

In three studies instruments were used to assess the play potential of the nature-based outdoor environment. Mårtensson et al. (2009) , for example, used the outdoor play environment categories (OPEC) tool, which gives a higher score to environments with large integrated spaces with plentiful greenery and varied topography compared to small areas where open spaces, play structures and vegetation are placed in separate parts of the environment. Richardson and Murray (2016) used the early childhood environment rating scale (ECERS) to assess the nature-based environment, but this tool is developed to assess indoor classrooms and is not adapted for outdoor spaces.

Four of the five studies that also used quantitative data, measured children’s physical activity in a quantitative way using accelerometers, and one study measured if features of the natural environment correlated with measures of inattentiveness.

Data analysis techniques were specified in all of the studies. In most of them (24 studies) comparative thematic analysis was used as data analysis technique. In the five mixed method studies, several statistical tests were used as well.

Details about strategies to address validity were not often mentioned, but four of the studies used focus groups of teachers to discuss the finding of the studies and to perform a member check.

Meta concept and theory analysis

During step 2, we synthesized key concepts in the studies. The studies in this review were selected based on two conceptual criteria, one of them was the nature-based environment , the other concept was play (or aspects of play). Most studies used a specific theoretical framework and/or a philosophical perspective to explain and understand the expected relation between nature-based environments and play. These theories help us to conceptualize about and generalize the findings within the specific studies and help us to understand the limits of these generalizations.

Seven studies used a specific theory in which the concept of play was embedded. Most of these studies used Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, from which play can be defined as a mode of activity. However, the concept “activity” was mostly used as “the things children do” or, in other words, children’s actions. Certainly, the theory was not used to place play in the larger cultural-historical context. Other studies used a criterion- based definition of play, such as it was “free” or child initiated. For example, in the study of Brussoni et al. (2017) play was described in terms of activities chosen by the children. Different aspects of these activities in nature-based environments were explained, such as hierarchy between peers during play, the complexity of the play or the duration of play episodes. Other studies defined play as consisting of different play categories, some of them cognitively more complex. For example, in the study of Dyment and O’Connell (2013) play was described using five categories: functional, constructive, symbolic, self-focused, and talking, whereas the constructive and symbolic category was also coded as creative and imaginative. In the studies that focused on a specific type of play, such as physical play, risky play, or sociodramatic play, it was easier to extract the specific play concept. Morrissey et al. (2017) for instance, used a detailed description of the concept of sociodramatic play: involving two or more players, providing a crucial everyday context in which children are motivated to engage socially with peers, and practice skills in communication, negotiation, symbolic, and creative thinking.

Nature based environment

Twelve studies used Gibson’s affordances theory to distinguish nature-based environments from non-nature-based environments. Lerstrup and Konijnendijk van den Bosch (2017) , for instance, used the affordances approach to operationalize how play actions are afforded by a specific feature of the environment and a specific user (a child of the preschool participating in their study) of that feature. In this way, the environment is not viewed as a separate object, but as something children take with them in their own experiences. Sandseter (2009) assessed how a nature-based environment affords risky play for pre-schoolers, using the concept of affordances, but adding the role of the educator to the equation.

Some studies used the concept “play opportunities” instead of affordances, to operationalize the relation between children’s play behavior and a nature-based environment. Canning (2013) , for example, made observation notes of the play behavior during den-making sessions and focused on the conversations between children to explore how the environment offers opportunities for creative thinking. In the den-making context the nature-based environment is an integrated part of children’s play experience in the same way as the environment in the affordances approach. In short, in most of the studies the relation between nature-based and children’s play behavior is operationalized as observed activities afforded by nature-based outdoor environments.

Although all of the studies aimed to explore if and how (aspects of) children’s play behavior is afforded by nature-based outdoor environments, there is no generally accepted description of the concept “nature-based environment” and it is hardly operationalized in most of the studies. Fourteen studies ( Supplementary Table 1 nrs. 2, 3, 6, 8, 11, 12, 14, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 27, and 28) used a comparator outdoor play environment to compare the nature-based environment with. The comparator environment that was referred to as “traditional” or “usual,” always contained man-made or manufactured elements such as a climbing structure and a sandpit. Another similarity in the description of elements that the non-nature-based environment consisted of was the character of the surface: it was paved, concrete, or hard. This is a kind of surface that afforded functional play: riding bikes, running around. These comparator environments can serve as a starting point to describe the (operationalized) characteristic elements of the nature-based environments in the studies.

In contrast, the elements of the nature-based environment were in the first place described as elements that were not man-made and do change, grow or die (even) without the intervention of humans. For instance, in the study of Brussoni et al. (2017) the “seven C’s system” for assessing the quality of the outdoor environment was used. One of the C’s stands for change: How does the play environment change over time? Second, although nature based environments can change, grow or die without human intervention, at the same time the elements of the nature-based environment are more sensitive to human intervention than man-made elements in an a non-nature based environment, for instance a climbing structure. Therefore, nature-based environments ask for care when playing with and in it, which interferes with the children’s play actions. Third, the surface of the nature-based environment is referred to as “biodiverse, soft, and diverse.” An example of this is the study of Puhakka et al. (2019) . In this study, the greening of day-care yards consisted not only of adding green elements, but also of replacing the complete surface area of a day-care yard by forest floor, sod, peat blocks, and planters for vegetable growing, making the surface more biodiverse.

Related to the surface as an important element of the nature-based environment, in many studies natural loose parts found in or on this surface were a vital element of the nature-based environment affording specific play activities. Harwood and Collier (2017) even went a step further by not operationalizing the observed activities of the children afforded by nature-based outdoor environments, but by operationalizing the activities that the natural loose parts performed in the child’s play narrative. In this view, the agency of sticks in children’s multi modal texts was afforded by the children. This post-humanist perspective (as they called it) was interesting as it described how the agency of the children was enriched by focusing on the agency of the stick. To acknowledge the agency of nature-based environments might be a key factor in describing the special way it affords play, compared to other environments.

Three studies used a theory of place. These theories account for the fact that a child’s identity is nurtured and shaped by place ( Gruenewald, 2003 ; Adams and Savahl, 2017 ; Crippen, 2017 ). Children have strong attachments to the places they play in and actively construct places for imaginative play ( Hart, 1979 ).

Meta data analysis

In step 3 we compared and contrasted the key concepts found in the studies to one another to establish overarching themes (reciprocal translation). Most of the studies showed that aspects of children’s play quality are related to aspects of nature-based environments which might lead to benefits for child development if mediated in certain ways by early childhood educators. However, this relationship is complex and it is not easy to isolate the elements of the physical environment from all other factors that influence play quality. In order to find how the outcomes of studies were related, we grouped the studies according to (1) aspects of play quality (2) aspects of nature-based environment, and (3) aspects of teacher-child interactions.

Theme 1: Aspects of play quality: play actions, play attitude, and cognitive play

All studies pointed out that there was a relation between children’s play actions and nature-based environments. Firstly, compared to a non-nature-based environment, there was more variety in play categories while children played in nature-based environments. In the studies, a non-nature-based environment mostly afforded a more physical type of play whereas nature-based environments afforded more diversity in type of play. For instance, Luchs and Fikus (2018) observed that children showed play patterns in which they combined different play types. Six studies reported more socio-dramatic play in the nature-based environment. In the study of Coates and Pimlott-Wilson (2019) , for example, children reported that the forest site where they played offered them opportunities to make things and be creative, and enact their own stories.

Secondly, the vast majority of the studies reported how play in nature-based environments was related to children’s social-emotional attitude during play. Interesting were the studies that included children’s own perspectives on their play experiences in nature-based environments: Children often reported joy, wellbeing, and enthusiasm. For instance, in the study of Moore et al. (2019) they included “stories of agency” in which children demonstrated a strong sense of comfort and self-confidence with the nature-based environment, by telling about the freedom they felt to make footprints anywhere or to cool down in the grass. This sense of confidence was also found in the studies that observed more risky play in nature-based environments, or a higher degree of risk afforded by nature-based environment. In the study of Mcclain and Vandermaas-Peeler (2015) , the degree of “wilderness” of the environment (a creek compared to a river) afforded the degree of challenge and risk in the observed play behavior. Some studies emphasized the possibility of the nature-based environment to sustain the play story, resulting in longer play episodes, compared to episodes on the non-nature-based playground. But also in using more play space, as the nature-based environment helped them to meander from one area to another. This relates to the studies that pointed to more explorative play behavior or higher involvement and engagement during play in nature-based environment. For example, McCree et al. (2018) found high scores of involvement during play sessions on a forest school site.

Thirdly, besides the fact that playing in a nature-based environment interacts with how children play in such an environment, five studies described how this is related to children’s cognitive development. In early childhood, cognitive development as an outcome of play activities is highly dependent on how much a child is involved in play and the extent to which the child experiences wellbeing. Seven studies observed explorative play behavior, problem solving and creativity and related this to the nature-based environment. For example, in the study of Puhakka et al. (2019) , increasing biodiversity and the amount of greenery of school yards led to more explorative play, more multi-sensory play experiences, and better pre academic skills (i.e., counting) than before the intervention. In the longitudinal study of McCree et al. (2018) an improvement in academic attainment (i.e., reading, writing, and maths) was seen after 3 years of attending weekly forest school sessions compared to their non-participating peers at school. Richardson and Murray’s (2016) study was the only study that measured richer language use during forest school sessions, in terms of noun diversity, and the use of adjectives and verbs.

To summarize this step of reciprocal translation: when children play in nature-based environments, the quality of their experiences during play is improved. This is shown by a greater diversity in play actions while at the same time the duration of the play episode was extended, compared to their play in non-nature-based environments. Children’s involvement and wellbeing during play was intensified while playing in nature-based environments. Furthermore, they were not only physical active but also used different cognitive skills in their play.

Theme 2: Play aspects of nature-based environments

Although in theme 1 we showed that playing in nature-based environments relates to higher play quality, it was not yet connected to specific aspects of the nature-based environment. Theme 2 reveals that this higher play quality is connected to specific aspect of the nature-based environment. Most of the studies indicated a clear relation between nature-based environments and playing with loose or fixed natural materials. Playing with loose materials often leads to construction play. For instance, in the study of Puhakka et al. (2019) the researchers observed that children were doing more arts and crafts with the loose natural materials. In many other studies we reviewed, sticks were mentioned as natural materials with special interest. For instance, in Canning’s (2013) study children used sticks to lay out a ladder and to pretend to climb in it. In the study of Harwood and Collier (2017) the sticks even had agency, for instance they were friends carried and cared for by the child, being able to change the play narrative of the child. In four studies play with small creatures was mentioned (e.g., insects, worms, and snails), as well as care for plants and vegetation. These studies also pointed to the importance of the notion of abundance of natural materials as opposed to the notion of scarcity (for example of toys) in non-nature-based environments. Zamani (2013) described how the living character of nature-based zones sparked curiosity and wonder, and invited play with critters and plants. Also in the study of Wight et al. (2015) the fact that nature “lives” made children caring for it. In three studies the notion of place was connected to the possibility to immerse or hide in it, for instance a shrub or high grass, or to offering objects (leaves and sticks) that can be used to transform the space into a place of imagination for sociodramatic play.

Reciprocal translation led us to conclude that when children played in nature-based environments, specific aspects of the nature-based environment, such as the abundance of materials and substances to play with might be connected to quality of children’s play activities, which is related to the cognitive outcomes mentioned above. At the same time the nature-based environment owns agency in play, “it/he/she plays back, nature instigates play.

Theme 3: Teacher-child interactions

In most of the studies in this review, children’s play in nature-based environments was child initiated, not teacher led. However, the role of the teacher is part of the children’s play environment and in four studies this teacher’s role in nature-based environment was specifically investigated ( Mawson, 2014 ; Mackinder, 2017 ; Akpinar and Kandir, 2022 ). They found that the role of the teacher influences play quality. In the study of Mawson (2014) the outcomes of a hands-off approach to teacher child interactions, where children could freely roam throughout the woods, was compared to a hands-on approach with teacher-led activities. These two approaches resulted in differences in child behavior. In the hands-off approach, children were taking more risk and challenged themselves more and also engaged in more socio-dramatic play, while in the hands-on approach the teacher was directing children’s attention toward objects for play and shared more factual information.

It is important to also consider other factors that support possibilities of nature-based environments for children’s learning and development. Specifically, including assessments of teachers perceptions of their children’s underachievement, along with their supervisory/teacher style. In the study of Maynard et al. (2013) , most of the children in the study that were perceived as “underachieving,” changed their behavior while playing in a nature-based environment to such extent that this “underachievement” was not seen anymore. To be outdoors in nature with more space and less constraining by teachers offered the children the opportunity to show differences in social, emotional, and learning behavior, for instance children were more cooperative, showed more pro-social behavior and remained more on task.

Reciprocal translation led us to conclude that when children play in nature-based environments, the character of the teachers’ mediation between children and between children and the environment influences how the affordances of the nature-based environment are actualized in play. When children received greater independent mobility license from their teachers ( Kyttä, 2004 ) it not only offered more opportunities for risky play, but also for more independence in being creative, explorative, and self-confident. Moreover, teacher’s mediation itself is impacted by the nature-based environment: the nature-based environment changed their expectations of children’s skills and behavior, which in turn influenced children’s independent mobility license. The more affinity with the nature-based environment teachers had, the more they were able to reinforce children’s mobility and agency toward the nature-based environment, by balancing between child initiative and teacher initiative, transferring some of their own initiative to the nature-based environment.

Taken together our qualitative synthesis suggests that the affordances for play in nature-based environments experienced by children and teachers are not only different from the affordances for play in non-nature-based environments, which is obvious, but the affordances of the nature-based environment might also improve the quality of play. This is interesting for ECE teachers, since high quality play will yield children’s learning and development ( Rubin et al., 1983 ). The studies also indicated that the relation between a nature-based environment and play quality is complex. Although the body of research into this topic is growing, more work needs to be done. The qualitative studies reviewed in this article forms a useful complement to the most recent systematic review on this topic from Dankiw et al. (2020) , which reviewed primarily quantitative studies. Insights from the current review can support our understanding of the meaning of play that is enabled and sustained by the nature-based environment for children in ECE. Taken together, our review gives a first indication of the importance of play in nature-based environments for children’s cognitive, social-emotional, and motor development.

Qualitative research can thus unravel how children’s play and the nature-based environment are mutually constitutive and how play processes are mediated by teachers to support children’s cognitive, social-emotional, and motor development. Through an interpretation of the synthesis, below we present a “line of argument”–step 4 in the meta-ethnography–about how nature play can promote child development. We refine parts of play theory, by elaborating on the importance of the distinctive living character of the nature-based environment and its ability to “play back.” Besides, we will use the affordances theory to reframe the concept “afforded play actions.” We argue that reciprocity and diversity are unique qualities of nature play, contributing to child development if teachers permit and support children to explore the conceptual, social, technical, and metacognitive aspects of the nature-based environment in play.

Line of argument, the value of nature play

Play theories explain how children’s active engagement with the surrounding world (i.e., play) results in knowledge of different aspects of the world, while in the meantime they learn to take part in it ( Bakhurst, 2009 ; Piaget, 2013 ; van Oers, 2013 ). This qualitative synthesis illuminates the uniqueness of nature-based environments for meaningful play activity which is largely ignored in play theories Firstly the “living character” of the nature-based environment, the fact that it has a life of its own, accounts for reciprocity and diversity in children’s play. Secondly the fact that children use tools (or toys) during play is commonly accounted for in play theories, whereas nature-based environments provide an ample and diverse supply of loose parts ( Speldewinde and Campbell, 2022 ). Which results in creative and imaginative play. Furthermore, both the stress reduction theory (SRT) as well as the ART account for the special connection between humans and nature-based environments ( Ulrich, 1983 ; Kaplan, 1995 ; Adams and Savahl, 2017 ). These theories imply that being in nature contributes to wellbeing, but do not refer to interactions with nature. For children, being in an environment leads to interaction with it, and play theory shows that the quality of these play interactions is important ( Burghardt, 2012 ; Speldewinde and Campbell, 2022 ). The current synthesis shows that, for children, not only being in nature but also interacting with nature is important, as they experience that these interactions are reciprocal. Nature has agency in these interactions and is adaptive toward diversity in children’s needs. Children listen to and tune into the nature-based environment, for example they gather sticks, pile them up for the imaginative bears to crunch them up during tea time. As such the environment instigates and enriches play.

In line with Gibson’s affordances theory, this review acknowledges how play actions are afforded by specific features of the physical environment and a specific user. However, we found that the affordances theory might overlook the complexity of the concept of “play” as it tends to look at individual play actions afforded by specific environmental features, such as a tree trunks affording jumping off. Using the affordances theory in this way, the attention will automatically be drawn to physical actions. Based on this qualitative synthesis, we argue that nature-based environments afford play activity on a more complex level than physical play actions alone. As we saw in the example of the children serving imaginative bears sticks during tea time, nature affords not only play actions, but also play scripts. The individual play actions are part of play activity that guides children to transform the perceptual world into a conceptual world. Our review indicates that nature-based environments afford the conditions for play, wellbeing, and involvement, as well as sociodramatic play and cognitive play, while in the meantime serving as a communicative context for sharing concepts together.

Our line of argument helps us to answer our research question: what is the value of play in nature-based environments compared to non-nature-based environments for developmental outcomes of young children (2–8 year). Our answer lays in defining how nature-based environments afford play in a distinctive way resulting in the concept of “nature play”: “play” in a nature-based environment consisting of natural loose and fixed elements (trees, vegetation water, sand, sticks, and stones) where children have the opportunity to engage in activities in which they are highly involved and where they have (some) freedom to develop their own play script, while interacting with and tuning into the affordances of the nature-based environment. Nature play has outcomes for cognitive, social-emotional, and cognitive development. In nature play, children have the possibility to find out how they are part of a living system. Early childhood educators are key actors in how children engage in play in the nature-based environment. They can support them to discover the conceptual, social, technical, and metacognitive aspects of nature-based environments. They need to expand children’s independent mobility to encourage them to explore the environment as well as to mediate between the child and the environment.

Strengths and limitations

The strength of this systematic review is that it synthesized the meaning of play in nature-based environments in ECE across qualitative research. It is worth noting that although the synthesized studies were small-scale studies, these studies were particularly respectful to the way children interact with the world and sincerely tried to give voice to the view of these children and their teachers. Nevertheless, small scale studies are often context-specific lacking the scale to “follow through to the implied logical entailed conclusion” ( Nye et al., 2016 ). Synthesizing the findings of these studies helps us to present new understandings of our topic, by drawing relationships between the individual studies. We acknowledge that the way we have refined and extended theory is not without its problems. A possible bias in the range and nature of qualitative research synthesized here is that outdoor play in ECE is mostly done for the reason of recess and to relax. For example, the strong emphasis on wellbeing and physical play in both the experiences of teachers and children, might reflect a western view on outdoor play in nature-based environments. Therefore, the reciprocal translation of the findings around cognitive skills were harder to synthesize although the importance of these findings for ECE should not be underestimated. Certainly, the strength of the meta-ethnographic approach is that it combines findings from multiple sources to increase validity and takes it a step further than primarily providing a narrative review of individual studies. Instead, it develops higher-order explanations. The consistency in the findings of studies in this meta ethnography supported its value, as the studies were undertaken in different educational settings, with nature-based environments varying in size and design. Another limitation is that in our attempt to translate themes across studies to arrive at higher order concepts during “step 2” of the synthesis, we may have lost some of the meaning and depth of key concepts and themes. However, we sought to preserve individual authors’ interpretations in our reciprocal translation of all the key concepts by memoing the key concepts. These memo’s contained comments on how the concepts were developed, connecting these concepts into meta themes, meanwhile we re-aligned our line of argument with the findings of the individual studies.

Future research

This systematic review provides some suggestions for future research. The first promising line for new research would be to include a deep theoretical understanding of play for the development of young children when studying interventions in nature-based environments. Although the affordances theory seems to explain how the environments afford play actions, it is not sufficient to move beyond the individual play actions. From an educational perspective we argue it is important to shift our view of outdoor play from “letting off steam” to playing in nature-based environments for children’s cognitive development.

From a methodological perspective, future research could benefit from the post humanist view in the study of Harwood and Collier (2017) . Taking the agency of the nature-based environment in the play of young children seriously, we might find new perspectives on how humans and nature are connected. This is in line with the movement of acknowledging the rights of nature, as was done for the first time with the Te Urewera Act in New Zealand ( Parliamentary Counsel Office, n.d. ). In this act, it is acknowledged that Te Urewera has an identity in and of itself, inspiring people to commit to its care. In a western view of nature-based environments we tend to look mostly at the human perspective of interaction with the nature-based environment, whereas in this synthesis it is clear that children experience nature as something that “plays back.”

Results of this systematic review using a meta ethnographic approach indicates that playing in nature-based environments not only supports young children’s healthy physical development (e.g., physical activity and motor development), but might also support their social-emotional, motor, and cognitive development. Although the studies we reviewed were mainly explorative and small-scaled, they do indicate that nature-based environments have far more to offer than only a space to relax or let off steam. Nature-based environments function as a play partner that helps children to transform the perceptual world into a conceptual world, because it diversifies play, is sensory rich and it plays back. When playing in nature-based environments, children have the possibility to connect with it in an interactive way. When teachers know how to mediate children’s interactions with the nature-based environment, these interactions will have developmental value. Therefore, we encourage early childhood teachers to change their practice of playing outdoors into “nature play” as a daily activity that supports cognitive, social-emotional, as well as motor development. Finally, as we have seen the value of nature-based environments for play, in line with in Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child ( United Nations, 1989 ) we might even consider nature play as a fundamental need and right of children. A need for and right to play in nature based environments that needs to be respected in the lives of young children.

Data availability statement

The original contributions presented in this study are included in the article/ Supplementary material , further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Author contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

This work was supported by SIA, part of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), (project number RAAK.PRO 02.079).

Acknowledgments

We thank Mrs. Nicole van den Bogerd for her contribution to the keywords for nature-based environments, and Mrs. Mireille Smits and Mrs. Elizabeth Wynberg for their contribution to the validation of the study selection process.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.995164/full#supplementary-material

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Keywords : play, nature-based environment, play environment, early childhood education, nature play, cognitive development

Citation: Prins J, van der Wilt F, van der Veen C and Hovinga D (2022) Nature play in early childhood education: A systematic review and meta ethnography of qualitative research. Front. Psychol. 13:995164. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.995164

Received: 15 July 2022; Accepted: 04 October 2022; Published: 10 November 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Prins, van der Wilt, van der Veen and Hovinga. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Jannette Prins, [email protected]

† These authors have contributed equally to this work and share last authorship

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Research Topics & Ideas: Environment

100+ Environmental Science Research Topics & Ideas

Finding and choosing a strong research topic is the critical first step when it comes to crafting a high-quality dissertation, thesis or research project. Here, we’ll explore a variety research ideas and topic thought-starters related to various environmental science disciplines, including ecology, oceanography, hydrology, geology, soil science, environmental chemistry, environmental economics, and environmental ethics.

NB – This is just the start…

The topic ideation and evaluation process has multiple steps . In this post, we’ll kickstart the process by sharing some research topic ideas within the environmental sciences. This is the starting point though. To develop a well-defined research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , along with a well-justified plan of action to fill that gap.

If you’re new to the oftentimes perplexing world of research, or if this is your first time undertaking a formal academic research project, be sure to check out our free dissertation mini-course. Also be sure to also sign up for our free webinar that explores how to develop a high-quality research topic from scratch.

Overview: Environmental Topics

• Ecology /ecological science
• Atmospheric science
• Oceanography
• Soil science
• Environmental chemistry
• Environmental economics
• Environmental ethics
• Examples  of dissertations and theses

Topics & Ideas: Ecological Science

• The impact of land-use change on species diversity and ecosystem functioning in agricultural landscapes
• The role of disturbances such as fire and drought in shaping arid ecosystems
• The impact of climate change on the distribution of migratory marine species
• Investigating the role of mutualistic plant-insect relationships in maintaining ecosystem stability
• The effects of invasive plant species on ecosystem structure and function
• The impact of habitat fragmentation caused by road construction on species diversity and population dynamics in the tropics
• The role of ecosystem services in urban areas and their economic value to a developing nation
• The effectiveness of different grassland restoration techniques in degraded ecosystems
• The impact of land-use change through agriculture and urbanisation on soil microbial communities in a temperate environment
• The role of microbial diversity in ecosystem health and nutrient cycling in an African savannah

Topics & Ideas: Atmospheric Science

• The impact of climate change on atmospheric circulation patterns above tropical rainforests
• The role of atmospheric aerosols in cloud formation and precipitation above cities with high pollution levels
• The impact of agricultural land-use change on global atmospheric composition
• Investigating the role of atmospheric convection in severe weather events in the tropics
• The impact of urbanisation on regional and global atmospheric ozone levels
• The impact of sea surface temperature on atmospheric circulation and tropical cyclones
• The impact of solar flares on the Earth’s atmospheric composition
• The impact of climate change on atmospheric turbulence and air transportation safety
• The impact of stratospheric ozone depletion on atmospheric circulation and climate change
• The role of atmospheric rivers in global water supply and sea-ice formation

Topics & Ideas: Oceanography

• The impact of ocean acidification on kelp forests and biogeochemical cycles
• The role of ocean currents in distributing heat and regulating desert rain
• The impact of carbon monoxide pollution on ocean chemistry and biogeochemical cycles
• Investigating the role of ocean mixing in regulating coastal climates
• The impact of sea level rise on the resource availability of low-income coastal communities
• The impact of ocean warming on the distribution and migration patterns of marine mammals
• The impact of ocean deoxygenation on biogeochemical cycles in the arctic
• The role of ocean-atmosphere interactions in regulating rainfall in arid regions
• The impact of ocean eddies on global ocean circulation and plankton distribution
• The role of ocean-ice interactions in regulating the Earth’s climate and sea level

Tops & Ideas: Hydrology

• The impact of agricultural land-use change on water resources and hydrologic cycles in temperate regions
• The impact of agricultural groundwater availability on irrigation practices in the global south
• The impact of rising sea-surface temperatures on global precipitation patterns and water availability
• Investigating the role of wetlands in regulating water resources for riparian forests
• The impact of tropical ranches on river and stream ecosystems and water quality
• The impact of urbanisation on regional and local hydrologic cycles and water resources for agriculture
• The role of snow cover and mountain hydrology in regulating regional agricultural water resources
• The impact of drought on food security in arid and semi-arid regions
• The role of groundwater recharge in sustaining water resources in arid and semi-arid environments
• The impact of sea level rise on coastal hydrology and the quality of water resources

Topics & Ideas: Geology

• The impact of tectonic activity on the East African rift valley
• The role of mineral deposits in shaping ancient human societies
• The impact of sea-level rise on coastal geomorphology and shoreline evolution
• Investigating the role of erosion in shaping the landscape and impacting desertification
• The impact of mining on soil stability and landslide potential
• The impact of volcanic activity on incoming solar radiation and climate
• The role of geothermal energy in decarbonising the energy mix of megacities
• The impact of Earth’s magnetic field on geological processes and solar wind
• The impact of plate tectonics on the evolution of mammals
• The role of the distribution of mineral resources in shaping human societies and economies, with emphasis on sustainability

Topics & Ideas: Soil Science

• The impact of dam building on soil quality and fertility
• The role of soil organic matter in regulating nutrient cycles in agricultural land
• The impact of climate change on soil erosion and soil organic carbon storage in peatlands
• Investigating the role of above-below-ground interactions in nutrient cycling and soil health
• The impact of deforestation on soil degradation and soil fertility
• The role of soil texture and structure in regulating water and nutrient availability in boreal forests
• The impact of sustainable land management practices on soil health and soil organic matter
• The impact of wetland modification on soil structure and function
• The role of soil-atmosphere exchange and carbon sequestration in regulating regional and global climate
• The impact of salinization on soil health and crop productivity in coastal communities

Topics & Ideas: Environmental Chemistry

• The impact of cobalt mining on water quality and the fate of contaminants in the environment
• The role of atmospheric chemistry in shaping air quality and climate change
• The impact of soil chemistry on nutrient availability and plant growth in wheat monoculture
• Investigating the fate and transport of heavy metal contaminants in the environment
• The impact of climate change on biochemical cycling in tropical rainforests
• The impact of various types of land-use change on biochemical cycling
• The role of soil microbes in mediating contaminant degradation in the environment
• The impact of chemical and oil spills on freshwater and soil chemistry
• The role of atmospheric nitrogen deposition in shaping water and soil chemistry
• The impact of over-irrigation on the cycling and fate of persistent organic pollutants in the environment

Topics & Ideas: Environmental Economics

• The impact of climate change on the economies of developing nations
• The role of market-based mechanisms in promoting sustainable use of forest resources
• The impact of environmental regulations on economic growth and competitiveness
• Investigating the economic benefits and costs of ecosystem services for African countries
• The impact of renewable energy policies on regional and global energy markets
• The role of water markets in promoting sustainable water use in southern Africa
• The impact of land-use change in rural areas on regional and global economies
• The impact of environmental disasters on local and national economies
• The role of green technologies and innovation in shaping the zero-carbon transition and the knock-on effects for local economies
• The impact of environmental and natural resource policies on income distribution and poverty of rural communities

Topics & Ideas: Environmental Ethics

• The ethical foundations of environmentalism and the environmental movement regarding renewable energy
• The role of values and ethics in shaping environmental policy and decision-making in the mining industry
• The impact of cultural and religious beliefs on environmental attitudes and behaviours in first world countries
• Investigating the ethics of biodiversity conservation and the protection of endangered species in palm oil plantations
• The ethical implications of sea-level rise for future generations and vulnerable coastal populations
• The role of ethical considerations in shaping sustainable use of natural forest resources
• The impact of environmental justice on marginalized communities and environmental policies in Asia
• The ethical implications of environmental risks and decision-making under uncertainty
• The role of ethics in shaping the transition to a low-carbon, sustainable future for the construction industry
• The impact of environmental values on consumer behaviour and the marketplace: a case study of the ‘bring your own shopping bag’ policy

Examples: Real Dissertation & Thesis Topics

While the ideas we’ve presented above are a decent starting point for finding a research topic, they are fairly generic and non-specific. So, it helps to look at actual dissertations and theses to see how this all comes together.

Below, we’ve included a selection of research projects from various environmental science-related degree programs to help refine your thinking. These are actual dissertations and theses, written as part of Master’s and PhD-level programs, so they can provide some useful insight as to what a research topic looks like in practice.

• The physiology of microorganisms in enhanced biological phosphorous removal (Saunders, 2014)
• The influence of the coastal front on heavy rainfall events along the east coast (Henson, 2019)
• Forage production and diversification for climate-smart tropical and temperate silvopastures (Dibala, 2019)
• Advancing spectral induced polarization for near surface geophysical characterization (Wang, 2021)
• Assessment of Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter and Thamnocephalus platyurus as Tools to Monitor Cyanobacterial Bloom Development and Toxicity (Hipsher, 2019)
• Evaluating the Removal of Microcystin Variants with Powdered Activated Carbon (Juang, 2020)
• The effect of hydrological restoration on nutrient concentrations, macroinvertebrate communities, and amphibian populations in Lake Erie coastal wetlands (Berg, 2019)
• Utilizing hydrologic soil grouping to estimate corn nitrogen rate recommendations (Bean, 2019)
• Fungal Function in House Dust and Dust from the International Space Station (Bope, 2021)
• Assessing Vulnerability and the Potential for Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) in Sudan’s Blue Nile Basin (Mohamed, 2022)
• A Microbial Water Quality Analysis of the Recreational Zones in the Los Angeles River of Elysian Valley, CA (Nguyen, 2019)
• Dry Season Water Quality Study on Three Recreational Sites in the San Gabriel Mountains (Vallejo, 2019)
• Wastewater Treatment Plan for Unix Packaging Adjustment of the Potential Hydrogen (PH) Evaluation of Enzymatic Activity After the Addition of Cycle Disgestase Enzyme (Miessi, 2020)
• Laying the Genetic Foundation for the Conservation of Longhorn Fairy Shrimp (Kyle, 2021).

Looking at these titles, you can probably pick up that the research topics here are quite specific and narrowly-focused , compared to the generic ones presented earlier. To create a top-notch research topic, you will need to be precise and target a specific context with specific variables of interest . In other words, you’ll need to identify a clear, well-justified research gap.

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12 Comments

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Implications of climate variability on wildlife conservation on the west coast of Cameroon

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Our bodies age in rapid bursts when we hit our mid-40s and early 60s, new study shows

We may not age in a linear fashion, but instead in bursts, including in our mid-40s and early 60s, suggests new research analyzing molecules in the body from stanford university..

So much for the idea of aging gracefully – or gradually. New research suggests the body ages in bursts, in particular, rapid changes about age 44 and another when we hit 60.

We consider aging as a constant process, but our bodies may actually age in a non-linear fashion, with certain types of molecules in our body increasing or decreasing dramatically when people hit the mid-40s, and again in the early 60s, according to research published Aug. 14 in the journal Nature Aging .

“We’re not just changing gradually over time; there are some really dramatic changes,” said the study's senior author Michael Snyder, a professor of genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine, in a description of the research on the university site . “It turns out the mid-40s is a time of dramatic change, as is the early 60s. And that’s true no matter what class of molecules you look at.”

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What did new aging research find?

Researchers studied data from 108 study participants who donated blood and other samples every few months over several years. They analyzed age-related changes in more than 135,000 different molecules, proteins and microbes.

The findings: thousands of these molecules and microorganisms – about 81% of those analyzed – increased or decreased more at certain ages. Researchers found molecules with the largest changes happened the most when people were in their mid-40s and their early 60s.

Finding the changes in the early 60s was not that surprising, because increased risks of diseases occur at that time, Snyder said. But the changes in the mid-40s happening equally in women and men was surprising.

“This suggests that while menopause or perimenopause may contribute to the changes observed in women in their mid-40s, there are likely other, more significant factors influencing these changes in both men and women," said Xiaotao Shen, first author on the study and a former Stanford Medicine postdoctoral scholar, now an assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, in the research summation.

"Identifying and studying these factors should be a priority for future research,” Shen said.

Specific findings by age group:

• Mid-40s: "Significant changes" were found in the amount of molecules related to cardiovascular disease, skin and muscle, and alcohol, caffeine and lipid metabolism.
• The 60s: Changes found at this age were related to carbohydrate and caffeine metabolism, immune regulation, kidney function, cardiovascular disease, and skin and muscle.

What advice do experts have based on this new aging research?

For those reaching the age when the aging "bursts" occur, those in their mid-40s and early 60s should "keep your exercise up to improve your muscle," Snyder told USA TODAY in an email conversation.

"In the 40s, watch and control your lipids to prevent atherosclerosis and maybe improve your fat deposition," he said.

As for increased alcohol metabolism, researchers haven't identified a cause and effect link to the changes and health implications, but an uptick in alcohol consumption in people’s mid-40s could be the culprit, Snyder said.

As folks approach their 60s, exercise remains important for muscle improvement and "is likely to improve the cardiovascular disease markers that we see change at both times." he said.

Also those hitting their 60s should watch carbohydrate intake and drink lots of water "to keep your kidney function up," Snyder said.

The research team plans to continue its work on the biology of aging, with hopes of improving guidance for people. “I’m a big believer that we should try to adjust our lifestyles while we’re still healthy,” Snyder said.

Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads:  @mikesnider  & mikegsnider .

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