Investigating preferences for soil-based ecosystem services

Soil provides multiple benefits for human well-being that are largely invisible to most beneficiaries. Here, we present the results of a discrete choice experiment on the preferences of Germans for soil-based ecosystem services. In an attempt to reduce complexity for respondents, we express soil-based ecosystem service attributes relative to the site-specific potential of soils to provide them. We investigate how knowledge about soils, awareness of their contributions to human well-being, and experience with droughts and floods affect preferences. We find substantial yet heterogeneous preferences for soil-based ecosystem services. Only some measures of familiarity exhibit significant effects on preferences.