Nature benefits human health. To date, however, little is known whether biodiversity relates to human health. While some local and city level studies show that species diversity, as a measure of biodiversity, can have positive effects, there is a lack of studies about the relationship between different species diversity measures and human health, especially at larger spatial scales. Here, we conduct cross-sectional analyses of the association between species diversity and human health across Germany, while controlling for socio-economic factors and other nature characteristics. As indicators for human health, we use the mental (MCS) and physical health (PCS) component scales of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP, Short Form Health Questionnaire – SF12). For species diversity, we use species richness and abundance estimates of two species groups: plants and birds. We phrase the following hypotheses: plant and bird species are positively associated with mental and physical health (H1 & H3); bird abundance is positively related to mental health (H2). Our results demonstrate a significant positive relationship between plant and bird species richness and mental health across all model variations controlling for a multitude of other factors. These results highlight the importance for species diversity for people’s mental health and well-being. Therefore, policy makers, landscape planners and greenspace managers on the local and national level should consider supporting biodiverse environments to promote mental health and wellbeing. For this purpose, we propose to use species diversity measures as indicators for salutogenic (health promoting) characteristics of nature, landscape and urban green space.

大自然有益于人类健康。然而，迄今为止，人们对生物多样性是否与人类健康有关还知之甚少。尽管一些地方和城市一级的研究表明，物种多样性作为一种生物多样性度量标准可以起到积极的作用，但仍缺乏关于不同物种多样性度量标准与人类健康之间关系的研究，尤其是在较大的空间尺度上。在这里，我们在控制社会经济因素和其他自然特征的同时，对整个德国的物种多样性与人类健康之间的关系进行了横断面分析。作为人类健康的指标，我们使用德国社会经济专家组（SOEP，简易健康问卷– SF12）的精神（MCS）和身体健康（PCS）分量表。对于物种多样性，我们使用两个物种组的物种丰富度和丰度估计：植物和鸟类。我们用以下假设来表述：植物和鸟类物种与心理和身体健康呈正相关（H1和H3）。禽类的丰度与心理健康（H2）呈正相关。我们的结果表明，在控制多种其他因素的所有模型变体中，植物和鸟类物种丰富度与心理健康之间存在显着的正相关关系。这些结果凸显了物种多样性对于人们心理健康和福祉的重要性。因此，地方和国家一级的政策制定者，景观规划师和绿地经理应考虑支持生物多样性环境，以促进心理健康和福祉。为此，我们建议使用物种多样性措施作为自然的有益健康（促进健康）特征的指标，