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<p>Residential landowner behaviors can influence the viability of increasingly fragmented ecosystems. Understanding the complex drivers of landscaping preferences is necessary to develop successful outreach efforts that encourage landowners to retain or restore natural ecosystem components and avoid community-scale socio-ecological losses.&#xa0;We aimed to determine how perceptions of coastal residential lawns with and without fringing salt marsh were related to environmental attitudes, lived experience, aesthetics, perceived danger, and demographics and how knowledge of salt marsh ecosystem services and disservices might influence those perceptions.&#xa0;We surveyed 160 respondents in Carteret County, NC, and completed 16 follow-up semi-structured interviews to examine respondents’ perceptions of salt marsh in lawns, environmental worldview, knowledge of the ecosystem services and disservices of salt marshes, and associated sociodemographic factors.&#xa0;Survey respondents found images of lawns with fringing salt marsh to be more attractive than those without, and interviewees commonly cited aesthetics as a salt marsh ecosystem service. Wildlife habitat was the most frequently cited salt marsh ecosystem service by interviewees, while reduced utility, nuisance species, and odors were the most commonly cited disservices.&#xa0;This study provides insight into the complex perceptions of salt marshes within the residential, coastal landscape and strengthens prior findings that knowledge of ecosystem services alone may be insufficient to influence landowner perceptions and thus conservation behaviors. Future research should examine whether promoting bird habitat could influence landowner decisions to retain or restore fringing salt marsh on their lawns.</p>

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Understanding perceptions of salt marsh in the coastal residential landscape

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年6月3日

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  • Mary-Margaret S. McKinney,
  • Cynthia A. Grace-McCaskey,
  • Megan E. Geesin,
  • Meghan A. Nadzam,
  • Rachel K. Gittman

摘要

Residential landowner behaviors can influence the viability of increasingly fragmented ecosystems. Understanding the complex drivers of landscaping preferences is necessary to develop successful outreach efforts that encourage landowners to retain or restore natural ecosystem components and avoid community-scale socio-ecological losses. We aimed to determine how perceptions of coastal residential lawns with and without fringing salt marsh were related to environmental attitudes, lived experience, aesthetics, perceived danger, and demographics and how knowledge of salt marsh ecosystem services and disservices might influence those perceptions. We surveyed 160 respondents in Carteret County, NC, and completed 16 follow-up semi-structured interviews to examine respondents’ perceptions of salt marsh in lawns, environmental worldview, knowledge of the ecosystem services and disservices of salt marshes, and associated sociodemographic factors. Survey respondents found images of lawns with fringing salt marsh to be more attractive than those without, and interviewees commonly cited aesthetics as a salt marsh ecosystem service. Wildlife habitat was the most frequently cited salt marsh ecosystem service by interviewees, while reduced utility, nuisance species, and odors were the most commonly cited disservices. This study provides insight into the complex perceptions of salt marshes within the residential, coastal landscape and strengthens prior findings that knowledge of ecosystem services alone may be insufficient to influence landowner perceptions and thus conservation behaviors. Future research should examine whether promoting bird habitat could influence landowner decisions to retain or restore fringing salt marsh on their lawns.