While cities are invasion hotspots, the view of urban residents on non-native species is critically understudied – an important knowledge gap since strategies on biological invasions could gain power by integrating human values, attitudes and perceptions. How citizens perceive the non-native tree Ailanthus altissima (tree of heaven) is unknown despite its abundance in many cities globally and its classification as invasive in many countries. In a quantitative survey with closed questions, we analysed (i) whether residents of Berlin, Germany knew the widespread species, (ii) how they perceived it in different urban situations, (iii) how they accepted different management strategies of it, and (iv) how the sociodemographic background of respondents predicted their preference and acceptability ratings. In total, we surveyed 196 respondents. Most respondents recognized the tree in a photograph, but few provided its correct name. Citizens’ preferences differed significantly among four urban contexts in which the species was shown, with prevailing approval for trees as a component of designed green spaces and less pronounced preferences for wild-grown trees in other urban spaces. When respondents were asked to indicate how the tree should be managed (three options), we found the most support for removal in problematic cases (‘adaptive on-site’ strategy); some support was found for the ‘leave alone’ strategy and least support for the ‘complete removal’ management strategy. Practitioners with expertise in urban landscaping were more critical of Ailanthus than laypeople. Ordinal logistic regression analyses showed that respondents with a ‘close to nature’ behaviour and attitude had a more positive view on Ailanthus and expressed more support for ‘leave alone’ management. Results demonstrate the importance of citizens’ context dependent views about a widespread invasive species, spanning from approval to disapproval in different situations. We conclude that urban management strategies concerning Ailanthus would gain support from citizens when combining multiple approaches: (i) to control the species in case of realized negative impacts; (ii) to prevent the invasion of the species in areas of conservation concern; and (iii) to develop novel approaches of integrating wild Ailanthus trees into urban green spaces. These insights could support management measures that need to be established due to the EU-Regulation on Invasive Alien Species.

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在赞成与反对之间：公民对入侵树木臭椿及其管理的看法

虽然城市是入侵热点，但城市居民对非本地物种的看法却没有得到充分研究——这是一个重要的知识差距，因为生物入侵战略可以通过整合人类价值观、态度和观念来获得力量。公民如何看待非本地树臭椿（天堂之树），尽管其在全球许多城市中数量众多，并且在许多国家被归类为入侵物种，但仍不得而知。在带有封闭式问题的定量调查中，我们分析了 (i) 德国柏林的居民是否了解广泛分布的物种，(ii) 他们在不同的城市环境中如何看待它，(iii) 他们如何接受不同的管理策略，以及 ( iv) 受访者的社会人口背景如何预测他们的偏好和可接受性评级。我们总共调查了 196 名受访者。大多数受访者在照片中认出了这棵树，但很少有人提供正确的名称。在展示该物种的四个城市环境中，公民的偏好存在显着差异，普遍认可将树木作为设计绿地的组成部分，而对其他城市空间中野生树木的偏好则不太明显。当受访者被要求指出应该如何管理树木（三个选项）时，我们发现在有问题的情况下最支持移除（“自适应现场”策略）；发现一些支持“不理会”策略，而最不支持“完全移除”管理策略。具有城市景观专业知识的从业者对臭椿比外行更挑剔。序数逻辑回归分析表明，具有“亲近自然”行为和态度的受访者对臭椿有更积极的看法，并表示更支持“独处”管理。结果表明公民对广泛入侵物种的上下文相关观点的重要性，从不同情况下的批准到不批准。我们得出结论，当结合多种方法时，关于臭椿的城市管理策略将获得市民的支持：(i) 在实现负面影响的情况下控制物种；(ii) 防止物种入侵受保护地区；(iii) 开发将野生臭椿树融入城市绿地的新方法。