Ryosuke Nakadai 

Giant trees that have come to have their own unique identities are often named by local people and can inspire a sense of awe and become objects of faith. Although these giant trees provide various kinds of spiritual ecosystem services that are beneficial to the spiritual well-being of the human society, the drivers of these services remain unclear. Using structural equation modeling with 38,994 giant tree records of 237 species across Japan, this study showed that macroecological processes, such as annual precipitation and temperature, may drive spiritual ecosystem services obtained from giant trees directly and indirectly via tree properties such as sizes and ages.