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Analyzing the spatiotemporal evolution and driving forces of gross ecosystem product in the upper reaches of the Chaobai River Basin
Abstract
The Chaobai River Basin, which is a crucial ecological barrier and primary water source area within the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, possesses substantial ecological significance. The gross ecosystem product (GEP) in the Chaobai River Basin is a reflection of ecosystem conditions and quantifies nature’s contributions to humanity, which provides a basis for basin ecosystem service management and decision-making. This study investigated the spatiotemporal evolution of GEP in the upper Chaobai River Basin and explored the driving factors influencing GEP spatial differentiation. Ecosystem patterns from 2005 to 2020 were analyzed, and GEP was calculated for 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020. The driving factors influencing GEP spatial differentiation were identified using the optimal parameter-based geographical detector (OPGD) model. The key findings are as follows: (1) From 2005 to 2020, the main ecosystem types were forest, grassland, and agriculture. Urban areas experienced significant changes, and conversions mainly occurred among urban, water, grassland and agricultural ecosystems. (2) Temporally, the GEP in the basin increased from 2005 to 2020, with regulation services dominating. At the county (district) scale, GEP exhibited a north-west-high and south-east-low pattern, showing spatial differences between per-unit-area GEP and county (district) GEP, while the spatial variations in per capita GEP and county (district) GEP were similar. (3) Differences in the spatial distribution of GEP were influenced by regional natural geographical and socioeconomic factors. Among these factors, gross domestic product, population density, and land-use degree density contributed significantly. Interactions among different driving forces noticeably impacted GEP spatial differentiation. These findings underscore the necessity of incorporating factors such as population density and the intensity of land-use development into ecosystem management decision-making processes in the upper reaches of the Chaobai River Basin. Future policies should be devised to regulate human activities, thereby ensuring the stability and enhancement of GEP.
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China has implemented a series of ecological engineering projects to help achieve the 2060 carbon neutrality target. However, the lack of quantitative research on ecological engineering and the contribution of climate change to terrestrial carbon sinks limits this goal. This study uses robust statistical models combined with multiple terrestrial biosphere models to quantify the impact of China's ecological engineering on terrestrial ecosystem carbon sink trends and their differences according to the difference between reality and nonpractice assumptions. The main conclusions include the following: (1) since 1901, 84% of terrestrial ecosystem carbon sinks in China have shown an increasing trend, and approximately 45% of regional carbon sinks have increased by more than 0.1 g C/m2 every 10 years. (2) Considering the impact of human activities and the implementation of ecological engineering in China, approximately 56% of carbon sinks have improved, and approximately 10% of the regions whose carbon sink growth exceeds 50 g C m−2 yr−1 are mainly in the southeast coastal of China. (3) The carbon sequestration potential and effect of the Sanjiangyuan ecological protection and construction project are better than others, at 1.26 g C m−2 yr−1 and 14.13%, respectively. The Beijing–Tianjin sandstorm source comprehensive control project helps alleviate the reduction in carbon sinks, while the southwest karst rocky desertification comprehensive control project may aggravate the reduction in carbon sinks. This study clarifies the potential of China's different ecological engineering to increase carbon sink potential, and distinguishes and quantifies the contribution of climate and human activity factors to it, which is of great significance to the system management optimization scheme of terrestrial ecosystems and can effectively serve the national carbon neutral strategy.
The Beautiful China Initiative (BCI) is a vivid embodiment of the harmonious coexistence between humans and nature during modernization. Implementing the BCI is an effective method for achieving the goals of building a beautiful China, while offering a “Chinese solution” to global sustainable development. This article summarizes the progress and main experiences of the BCI, as well as analyzing the primary challenges facing its future development. Finally, five policy recommendations are proposed, which emphasize the importance of top-level design, coordinated planning, and a robust support system in the implementation of the BCI.
The large-scale loss of ecosystem assets around the world, and the resultant reduction in the provision of nature’s benefits to people, underscores the urgent need for better metrics of ecological performance as well as their integration into decision-making. Gross ecosystem product (GEP) is a measure of the aggregate monetary value of final ecosystem-related goods and services in a specific area and for a given accounting period. GEP accounting captures the use of many ecosystem services in production processes across the economy, which are then valued in terms of their benefits to society. GEP has five key elements that make it transparent, trackable, and readily understandable: (1) a focus on nature’s contributions to people; (2) the measurement of ecosystem assets as stocks and ecosystem services as flows; (3) the quantification of ecosystem service use; (4) an understanding of ecosystem service supply chains through value realization; and (5) the disaggregation of benefits across groups. Correspondingly, a series of innovative policies based on GEP have been designed and implemented in China. The theoretical and practical lessons provided by these experiences can support continued policy innovation for green and inclusive development around the world.
Ecosystem services are the media and channels through which ecological elements, structures, functions, and products benefit human society. Regulating the utilization intensity and protection methods of society on the ecosystem according to the ecosystem service value (ESV) and its influencing mechanism is of great significance for achieving the sustainable development goals. This paper takes the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) as the research object and describes the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of ESV in the GBA from 2000 to 2015. Panel quantile regression is also implemented to increase the understanding of the influencing mechanism of ESV. The main results are as follows: (1) From 2000 to 2015, the total ESV declined with a decreasing rate. The areas of decline were mainly distributed in the central part of the GBA and areas along the Pearl River Estuary. (2) Elasticity index, indicating response of ESV to land use change, reached its peak (1.08). The spatial distribution of elasticity index showed that land use changes brought about more intense ESV variations at the junction of cities. (3) In areas with different ESV levels, the influencing factors have different effects. Land use integrity can only promote ecosystem service capabilities in low-ESV areas. The positive effect of temperature on ecosystem service capacity increases with the increase of ESV, which reflects the self-reinforcement of the ecosystem. Moreover, the negative effect of economic density on ecosystem service capacity decreases with the increase of ESV, which reflects the self-protection of the ecosystem. The combination of such self-reinforcement and self-protection will lead to an ESV gap between the high- and low-ESV areas, and induce the “natural Matthew effect.”
Human demand for ecosystem services dominates ecosystem changes and impacts the temporal–spatial patterns of ecosystem services and their trade- offs. In the process of urbanization, the supply service, regulation service, and cultural service of the ecosystem are difficult to improve in synergy in the city and its surrounding areas, which is tough for urban construction and development. This study took the Chaobai River basin located in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban megaregion in northern China as the research area. The temporal and spatial changes from 2000 to 2015 of three typical ecosystem services in the study area, including food production, water conservation, and recreation, were evaluated and analyzed through modeling. The ecosystem service hotspots, service-gain areas, and service-loss areas were identified based on spatial analysis. The dynamic change mechanism of ecosystem services was explored from the perspective of land use change and hotspot analysis. The results showed that (1) recreation and food production services showed an increasing trend, while water conservation showed a fluctuating increasing trend. (2) The service-gain area was significantly larger than the service-loss area. (3) The main land use change form in the study area during the study period was the regional conversion of cultivated land to forest land and construction land, which led to the increase in water conservation services and the reduction of food production services in the corresponding patches. However, this conversion did not affect the overall improvement of the three ecosystem services in the study area. (4) Ecosystem service hotspots have gradually changed from being single-service dominant to two co-leading services. The area of food production-recreation hotspots continued to increase, indicating synergy between them. The area of water conservation-recreation hotspots continued to decrease, indicating trade-offs between them. Different types of ecosystem services improve in synergy in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban megaregion in the process of urbanization through the improvement of agricultural technology and productivity and the promotion of leisure and sightseeing agriculture. This provides an example for other cities.
Uncovering the complex interactions among ecosystem services (ESs) is a prerequisite for managing multiple ESs simultaneously. We mapped the supply of six ESs, quantified their trade-offs/synergies and bundles, determined dominant social-ecological drivers, and subsequently provided sustainable spatial planning and management strategies at both grid and sub-watershed scales. The results revealed that: (1) the patterns of ESs were spatially heterogeneous, with food production decreasing the most, by 14.86% (grid scale) and 17% (sub-watershed scale), and water supply increasing the most, by 22.46% (grid scale) and 22.57% (sub-watershed scale) from 2000 to 2020; (2) ten ES pairs presented synergies while five ES pairs related to food production showed trade-offs at both spatial scales, with three ES pairs at the grid scale and two ES pairs at the sub-watershed scale experiencing declined synergies or increased trade-offs; (3) our spatial-temporal and cross-scale analysis of ES interactions identified ES pairs with declined synergies as an additional priority in ecosystem management and determined ES bundles as a zoning basis for spatial planning at both scales. The similarities and divergences in ES interactions and their drivers at different scales require the linkage and distinct focus of spatial planning at different scales. Thus, we integrated spatial-temporal and cross-scale knowledge on ES interactions into spatial planning to underpin sustainable ecosystem management across scales.
The Tarim River Basin is the largest inland river basin in China. It is located in an extremely arid region, where agriculture and animal husbandry are the main development industries. The recent rapid rise in population and land demand has intensified the competition for urban land use, making the water body ecosystem increasingly fragile. In light of these issues, it is important to comprehensively grasp regional land structure changes, improve the degree of land use, and reasonably allocate water resources to achieve the sustainable development of both the social economy and the ecological environment. This study uses the CA-Markov model, the PLUS model and the gray prediction model to simulate and validate land use/cover change (LUCC) in the Tarim River Basin, based on remote sensing data. The aim of this research is to discern the dynamic LUCC patterns and predict the evolution of future spatial and temporal patterns of land use. The study results show that grassland and barren land are currently the main land types in the Tarim River Basin. Furthermore, the significant expansion of cropland area and reduction in barren land area are the main characteristics of the changes during the study period (1992–2020), when about 1.60% of grassland and 1.36% of barren land converted to cropland. Over the next 10 years, we anticipate that land-use types in the basin will be dominated by changes in grassland and barren land, with an increasing trend in land area other than for cropland and barren land. Grassland will add 31,241.96 km2, mainly in the Dina River and the lower parts of the Weigan-Kuqu, Kashgar, Kriya, and Qarqan rivers, while barren land will decline 2.77%, with significant decreases in the middle and lower reaches of the Tarim River Basin. The findings of this study will provide a solid scientific basis for future land resource planning.
Context
Climate change has imposed tremendous impacts on ecosystem services. Recent attempts to quantify such impacts mainly focused on a basin or larger scale, or used limited time periods that largely ignore observations of long-term trends at a fine resolution, thereby affecting the recognition of climate change’s effect on ecosystem services.
Objectives
This study conducts a detailed and spatially explicit recognition of climate change’s effect on ecosystem services and provides an intuitive map for decision-making and climate change adaptation planning.
Methods
We used long-term time series of ecosystem service assessments and various future climate scenarios to quantify the sensitivity and future exposure of ecosystem services to climate change on the Tibetan Plateau.
Results
Carbon sequestration (CS) and habitat quality experience significant growth, while water retention did not show any trend. Sensitivity patterns of these ecosystem services vary largely. For CS, more than half of the pixels showed a positive sensitivity to climate change, even though the degree of sensitivity is not high. There is substantial spatial heterogeneity in the exposure of ecosystem services to future climate changes, and high levels of future climate change increase the intensity of exposure.
Conclusions
This study illustrates the complex spatial association between ecosystem services and climatic drivers, and these findings can help optimize local response strategies in the context of global warming. For example, the existing protected areas have notable conservation gaps for disturbance of future climate change on ecosystem services, especially in the southeastern part of the study area.
Premise:
Climate change is having major impacts on alpine and arctic regions, and inter-annual variations in temperature are likely to increase. How increased climate variability will impact plant reproduction is unclear.
Methods:
In a 4-year study on fruit production by an alpine plant community in northern Sweden, we applied three warming regimes: (1) a static level of warming with open-top chambers (OTC), (2) press warming, a yearly stepwise increase in warming, and (3) pulse warming, a single-year pulse event of higher warming. We analyzed the relationship between fruit production and monthly temperatures during the budding period, fruiting period, and whole fruit production period and the effect of winter and summer precipitation on fruit production.
Results:
Year and treatment had a significant effect on total fruit production by evergreen shrubs, Cassiope tetragona, and Dryas octopetala, with large variations between treatments and years. Year, but not treatment, had a significant effect on deciduous shrubs and graminoids, both of which increased fruit production over the 4 years, while forbs were negatively affected by the press warming, but not by year. Fruit production was influenced by ambient temperature during the previous-year budding period, current-year fruiting period, and whole fruit production period. Minimum and average temperatures were more important than maximum temperature. In general, fruit production was negatively correlated with increased precipitation.
Conclusions:
These results indicate that predicted increased climate variability and increased precipitation due to climate change may affect plant reproductive output and long-term community dynamics in alpine meadow communities.
A clear understanding of the relationships among multiple ecosystem services (ESs) is the foundation for sustainable urban ecosystem management. Quantitatively identifying the factors that influence ES trade-offs and synergies can contribute to deepening ES research, from knowledge building to decision making. This study simulated soil conservation, water yield and carbon sequestration in Beijing, China, from 2015–2018. The spatial trade-offs and synergies of these three ESs within the five major river basins in Beijing were explored using geographically weighted regression. Furthermore, geographical detector was applied to quantitatively identify the driving mechanism of the environmental factors for the ES trade-offs and synergies. The results show the following: (1) the spatial relationships between soil conservation and water yield, as well as between water yield and carbon sequestration, were mainly trade-offs. There was a spatial synergy between soil conservation and carbon sequestration. (2) Regarding the spatial trade-off/synergy between soil conservation and water yield in Beijing, the dominant influencing factor was temperature/elevation, and the dominant interactions of the spatial trade-off and synergy between these two ESs in Beijing and the Chaobai River Basin are all manifested in the superposition of precipitation and potential evapotranspiration, temperature, and elevation. (3) Topographic factors were the dominant factors influencing the spatial relationship between soil conservation and carbon sequestration in Beijing and its five major river basins. As a result of the distribution of water systems and hydrological characteristics of the basins, differences were observed in the effects of different combinations of interaction factors on the spatial relationship between these two ESs in different basins. (4) Temperature had the strongest explanatory power in terms of the spatial trade-offs and synergies between water yield and carbon sequestration. The interactions between precipitation and temperature and between precipitation and elevation were the dominant interactions affecting the spatial relationship between water yield and carbon sequestration in Beijing. Overall, the explanatory power of influencing factors on the trade-offs and synergies and the degree of interaction between factors coexist in different basins with consistency and differences. Therefore, understanding the quantitative characteristics of basin-scale spatial trade-offs and synergies between ESs is important for ecosystem management and the promotion of synergy in different basins.
Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP) is an aggregate measure of the monetary value of final ecosystem services, or the direct benefits that people derive from nature. In this study, we focus on the 'Chang-Zhu-Tan' (CZT) urban agglomeration - an emerging megacity of over 15 million people situated on the Yangtze River - as a case study of the dynamics of ecological production amidst rapid urbanization. In this study, we couple a spatial-temporal analysis of regional ecological change based on remote-sensing data with economic valuation methods (e.g. travel cost method) using official statistics and survey data. We find that while the land cover of natural ecosystems decreased slightly between 2000 and 2015, their quality - and therefore economic value - greatly improved. From 2000 to 2015, the GEP of CZT increased by 56.77%. In particular, the value of regulating services grew by 7.43% (calculated using inflation-adjusted prices). GEP can reflect nature's contribution to human well-being. At the same time, its long-term trends can serve as an indicator of the extent and quality of local and regional ecosystems, thereby providing a corrective or complement to more conventional measures of development. Although urbanization increases spatial constraints on the management of natural capital, progress in ecological protection and restoration can still improve the quality of ecosystems and the services they provide. Our study shows how GEP, and the value of natural capital it reflects, can grow amidst the pressures of rapid urbanization.
Gross domestic product (GDP) summarizes a vast amount of economic information in a single monetary metric that is widely used by decision makers around the world. However, GDP fails to capture fully the contributions of nature to economic activity and human well-being. To address this critical omission, we develop a measure of gross ecosystem product (GEP) that summarizes the value of ecosystem services in a single monetary metric. We illustrate the measurement of GEP through an application to the Chinese province of Qinghai, showing that the approach is tractable using available data. Known as the “water tower of Asia,” Qinghai is the source of the Mekong, Yangtze, and Yellow Rivers, and indeed, we find that water-related ecosystem services make up nearly two-thirds of the value of GEP for Qinghai. Importantly most of these benefits accrue downstream. In Qinghai, GEP was greater than GDP in 2000 and three-fourths as large as GDP in 2015 as its market economy grew. Large-scale investment in restoration resulted in improvements in the flows of ecosystem services measured in GEP (127.5%) over this period. Going forward, China is using GEP in decision making in multiple ways, as part of a transformation to inclusive, green growth. This includes investing in conservation of ecosystem assets to secure provision of ecosystem services through transregional compensation payments.
Spatial heterogeneity represents a general characteristic of the inequitable distributions of spatial issues. The spatial stratified heterogeneity analysis investigates the heterogeneity among various strata of explanatory variables by comparing the spatial variance within strata and that between strata. The geographical detector model is a widely used technique for spatial stratified heterogeneity analysis. In the model, the spatial data discretization and spatial scale effects are fundamental issues, but they are generally determined by experience and lack accurate quantitative assessment in previous studies. To address this issue, an optimal parameters-based geographical detector (OPGD) model is developed for more accurate spatial analysis. The optimal parameters are explored as the best combination of spatial data discretization method, break number of spatial strata, and spatial scale parameter. In the study, the OPGD model is applied in three example cases with different types of spatial data, including spatial raster data, spatial point or areal statistical data, and spatial line segment data, and an R “GD” package is developed for computation. Results show that the parameter optimization process can further extract geographical characteristics and information contained in spatial explanatory variables in the geographical detector model. The improved model can be flexibly applied in both global and regional spatial analysis for various types of spatial data. Thus, the OPGD model can improve the overall capacity of spatial stratified heterogeneity analysis. The OPGD model and its diverse solutions can contribute to more accurate, flexible, and efficient spatial heterogeneity analysis, such as spatial patterns investigation and spatial factor explorations.
Global change, especially land-use intensification, affects human well-being by impacting the delivery of multiple ecosystem services (multifunctionality). However, whether biodiversity loss is a major component of global change effects on multifunctionality in real-world ecosystems, as in experimental ones, remains unclear. Therefore, we assessed biodiversity, functional composition and 14 ecosystem services on 150 agricultural grasslands differing in land-use intensity. We also introduce five multifunctionality measures in which ecosystem services were weighted according to realistic land-use objectives. We found that indirect land-use effects, i.e. those mediated by biodiversity loss and by changes to functional composition, were as strong as direct effects on average. Their strength varied with land-use objectives and regional context. Biodiversity loss explained indirect effects in a region of intermediate productivity and was most damaging when land-use objectives favoured supporting and cultural services. In contrast, functional composition shifts, towards fast-growing plant species, strongly increased provisioning services in more inherently unproductive grasslands.
© 2015 The Authors Ecology Letters published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and CNRS.
The Ecosystem Services Journal starts in 2012 with a formidable basis in the reports and books from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and TEEB projects. Following a half-century history of growing awareness and associated scientific based policy development a bridging concept with natural and social science notions was developed and coined “ecosystem services”. The agenda for the journal Ecosystem Services, presented in this introductory paper to the Journal Ecosystem Services is aimed at scientists and policy analysts who consider contributing to better knowledge and better use of that knowledge about ecosystem services. This should include knowledge of the ecological systems that provide the services, the economic systems that benefit from them, and the institutions that need to develop effective codes for a sustainable use. The agenda is derived from the experience of the authors in science and policy analysis and extended with some of the recommendations from the TEEB book for national and international policy making emphasising the science—policy—practice linkage, which is the philosophy of the Journal.
Since its introduction in the first Human Development Report in 1990, the Human Development Index (HDI) has attracted great
interest in policy and academic circles, as well as in the media and national audiences around the world. Its popularity can
be attributed to the simplicity of its characterization of development - an average of achievements in health, education and
income – and to its underlying message that development is much more than economic growth. The index was originally conceived
by the late Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq, in collaboration with Amartya Sen and other scholars, as a response to their
dissatisfaction with GDP as the standard measure of development. As Haq noted, “Any measure that values a gun several hundred
times more than a bottle of milk is bound to raise serious questions about its relevance for human progress.” Yet the HDI’s
very simplicity prompted critiques from the start, with some contending that it was too simplistic, while others who accepted
its self-imposed limitations still questioned its choice of indicators and its computational methodology. This article discusses
the concept and key insights learnt from the HDI, provides a detailed review of key critiques of the HDI, today and in the
past, and explains the recent changes introduced to the HDI formula and indicators. Recent controversies are highlighted and
placed in the context of longer running debates. The innovations to broaden the measurement of deprivations and disparities
in human development are introduced, with some key global and regional insights.
KeywordsHuman development–Education–Health–Developing countries–Inequality–Poverty
Mid and high latitude wetlands are becoming fragmented and losing ecosystem functions at a much faster rate than many other ecosystems. This is due in part to increasing human activities and climate change. In this study, we analyzed wetland distribution and spatial pattern changes for the Heilongjiang River Basin over the past 100 yr. We identified the driving factors and quantified the relative importance of each factor based on landscape pattern metrics and machine learning algorithms. Our results show that wetlands have been fragmented into smaller and regular patches with dominant factors that varied at different periods. Geographic features play the most important role in patterns of wetland change for the entire basin (with 50%–60% of relative importance). Human activities are more important than climate change at the century scale, but less important when magnified at the decadal scale. In the early 1900s, human activities were relatively low and localized and remained that way in the subsequent decades. Thus, the effect of human activities on wetland area of the entire basin is weaker when examined at the magnified decadal scale. The results also show that human activities are more important on the Chinese side of the Heilongjiang River Basin, in the Zeya-Bureya Plain on the Russian side, and at lower altitudes (0–100 m). Revealing the spatial and temporal processes and driving factors over the past 100 yr helps researchers and policymakers understand and anticipate wetland change and design effective conservation and restoration policies.
Ecosystem service value (ESV) refers to the value of benefits provided by the ecosystem to people, and can reflect the quality of regional ecological environment. There have been few studies on ESV in arid regions experiencing dramatic land use changes. Also, many past ESV studies have obtained distorted results by using a simple linear function to examine the trade-offs between driving factors. This study quantified ESV in Xinjiang from 1990 to 2020 based on value equivalent method. Differences in ESV among ecosystem services in Xinjiang under different scenarios were simulated using a Bayesian network model. The results demonstrated land use changes in Xinjiang from 1990 to 2020, with construction land expanding the most significantly (dynamic index: 224.63 %), whereas grassland area decreased (dynamic index: −1.31 %) due to transformation to unused and cultivated land. ESV in Xinjiang presented an N-shaped variation trend from 1990 to 2020 and decreased by 309.6 × 10⁸ CNY, with a variation rate of −20.35 %. The rank of the four categories of ecological services from 1990 to 2020 in terms of ESV was: regulating services > support services > cultural services > supply services. There was a gradual reduction in ESV in Xinjiang from 1990 to 2020. The rank of the different regions in terms of the reduction in ESV was: Northern Xinjiang (295.24 × 10⁸ CNY) > Southern Xinjiang (280.94 × 10⁸ CNY) > Eastern Xinjiang (109.76 × 10⁸ CNY). Land use change was a direct driver of changes in ESV, whereas natural and social factors, such as precipitation, temperature, population, and policy factors, were indirect drivers. This study can act as a reference for sustainable management of ecosystem services in arid regions.
The land use and land cover change (LUCC) associated with climate change and human activities is supposed to exert a significant effect on ecosystem functions in arid inland regions. However, the role of LUCC in shaping the spatio-temporal patterns of ecosystem services and ecological security remain unclear, especially under different future LUCC scenarios. Here, we evaluated dynamic changes of ecosystem services and ecological security pattern (ESP) in the Hexi Regions based on LUCC and other environment variables by integrating morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA), entropy weight method and circuit theory. Our result showed that the LUCC was generally stable from 1980 to 2050. Compare to 2020, the land conversion under natural growth (NG), ecological protection (EP) and urban development (UD) scenarios in 2050 has changed by 10.30 %, 10.10 %, and 10.31 %, respectively. The forest, medium-cover grassland and water increased in the EP scenario, and construction land and cropland greatly expanded in the other two scenarios. Ecosystem services grew larger in the EP scenario by 2050 in comparison with the NG and UD scenarios. The ESP in the Hexi Regions has obvious spatial differences during 1980–2050. The larger ecological sources and less resistance corridors were mainly distributed in the central and eastern of the Hexi Regions with high ecosystem services. Conversely, fragmented ecological sources and larger resistance corridors were mostly located in the western regions blocked by sandy land, bare land or mountains. Compared to 2020, the area of ecological sources and pinch points under the EP scenario in 2050 increased by 4.10 × 10³ km² and 0.31 × 10³ km², respectively. The number of ecological corridors reduced while the length and resistance increased apart from the EP scenario. Our results highlighted the importance of ecological protection in shaping the LUCC, which further enhances the integrity of ecosystem and ecological security.
Ecosystem services (ESs) have been widely used for ecological protection and land spatial planning. Natural and anthropogenic drivers exhibit a strong dynamic coupling relationship with ESs. However, current ESs-related research focused on mapping the ESs spatially or investing the trade-offs and synergies relationship between ES, ignoring the nonlinear response of ESs to natural and anthropogenic drivers. Here we aimed to investigate the nonlinear effect of 14 potential drivers (8 natural and 6 anthropogenic) on the total value of six typical ESs (ESV). Taking Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration (BTH) in China as an example, we established 14 constrain lines and identified critical thresholds through the restricted cubic splines (RCS) regression. We found strong non-linear impacts of natural and anthropogenic drivers on ESV and critical thresholds existed among all the 14 constrain lines. The RCS plots showed that the overall ESV was kept at a high level before or after certain thresholds (e.g., altitude >687 m, slope >13.4°, NDVI >0.7, distance from water <31.2 km, etc.). We categorized these threshold combinations and found the potentially high ES delivery areas were mainly distributed in the Yanshan Mountian, accounting for approximately 5% of the total BTH region. These critical thresholds offer a new method to delineate conservation and restoration priority areas.
As a measure of ecosystems' contribution to human well-being, the concept of Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP) is an integrated monetary index for the evaluation of final ecosystem services, which has attracted widespread attention around the world. In China, both national and local governments have launched a series of GEP accounting pilot projects, with the aim to incorporate this new concept into real world decision-making. However, a critical review of these practices remains lacking, especially regarding their current status and problems. In this study, by performing a systematic review and data integration of current literature and government documents, we comprehensively described the GEP accounting practices in China, including pilot project's coverage, accounting methods, and policy application. Then, we identified five major problems in current GEP accounting practices in China, which prevent GEP from being accurately measured in the short term. We proposed that GEP accounting should be a constantly evolving process with both long-term and short-term improvement goals. More in detail, the accuracy issues in GEP accounting require longer periods of time to resolve; while its repeatability, comparability, and applicability should be improved in the short term, so that it can be incorporated into decision-making. In response to these challenges, we suggested the adaptation of GEP accounting index screening principles as a possible future direction, which can help to apply GEP results in the current stages of decision making. By improving GEP concept and accounting, it will be possible to establish a unified comparable GEP accounting system and reduce the gap between the GEP and decision-making.
Ecosystem service value (ESV) is influenced by land use and land cover (LULC), and is closely related to natural conditions and human activities. However, the interactions between human and natural systems and ESV remain unclear, especially concerning widely discussed meteorological and socioeconomic factors. In this study, three periods of LULC patterns (2000, 2010, and 2020) in the Haihe River Basin, northern China, were collected to determine the relationship between changes in LULC and ESV over time. Natural and socioeconomic data associated with ESV were obtained and the structural equation model was used to decouple interactions between these factors. Results showed that the total value of regional ecosystem services has decreased as cultivated land shrunk and artificial surfaces increased over the past two decades. The ESV was significantly decreased in the middle of the basin. The direct effects of meteorological factors and socioeconomic factors on ESV were positive (0.094) and negative (−0.203), respectively. The indirect effect of socioeconomic factors on ESV through meteorological and LULC factors was 0.149. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that under the dominance of LULC, interactions between natural and socioeconomic factors affected ESV in a complex manner. These results implied that identifying the direct and indirect effects of economic development and human activities on ESV could guide and implement effective land management policies.
Ecosystem services have received significant attention as more countries build sustainable economies. Valuing ecosystem services could greatly improve stewardship, which would yield a flow of vital goods and services when they were properly managed. This paper constructs a comprehensive framework to evaluate the terrestrial gross ecosystem products (GEP) at the global scale. By using remote sensing image with a spatial resolution of 1 km, the ecosystem provisioning services, regulating services and tourism services provided by 179 major countries are calculated from both biophysical and monetary perspectives. The results show that the range of global terrestrial GEP values was 108–187 trillion USD in 2017, with an average value of 147 trillion USD, and that the ratio of GEP to gross domestic product (GDP) was 1.86. The value of global ecosystem regulating services accounts for about 90%. There are obvious spatial differences in the distribution of the GEP. At the national level, the countries with the highest GEP values are Brazil, the United States, China, Canada and Russia. At the continental level, the GEP in America, Asia, Europe, Africa and Oceania account for 41%, 23%, 12%, 21% and 3% of the total global GEP, respectively. GEP of the top ten countries are mainly composed of the value of climate regulation service and water conservation service. Further analysis of the driving factors shows that these countries have sufficient evapotranspiration and precipitation to cool the region, increase humidity and conserve water. It is noted that African countries have higher GEP/GDP ratios, with value exceeding 100 in some countries, while developed countries such as Japan have higher GDP/GEP ratios.
The Yangtze River Basin (YZRB) and Yellow River Basin (YRB) are important ecological regions in China. In recent decades, intense climate change and human activities have altered the natural landscapes of both basins and degraded their ecosystem functions. This study focused on clarifying the major factors influencing the ecosystem services (ESs) in different regions of China, which will be key to manage ecosystems sustainably. Five ESs, including water yield, carbon storage, soil conservation, water purification and habitat quality were selected for mapping. The geographical detector model was used to analyze the independent and joint effects of driving factors, and the spatial changes in driving factors were expressed using geographically weighted regression model. Results showed that (1) all five ESs decreased from southeast to northwest in the YRB but had an irregular distribution in the YZRB. (2) Precipitation and woodland proportion were dominant factors for total ecosystem services in both basins, followed by temperature, slope, and human activity intensity in the YRB, and temperature, human activity intensity, and population density in the YZRB. The combined effects of the driving factors were much higher than the individual effects in both basins (3) Natural factors (e.g., precipitation, slope, and woodland proportion). exerted positive effects in most areas of both basins. Human factors (e.g., GDP, human activity intensity, and built-up land proportion) had negative effects, with an uneven spatial distribution. Overall, natural factors promoted the formation and spatial distribution of ESs, and their direct impacts on total ecosystem services were insignificant in the short term. The impact of land-use changes played a leading role in joint impacts. In the YRB, the increase of woodland had a positive effect on ESs; the continuous growth of build-up land led to the degradation of ESs in the YZRB. Accordingly, adhering to the program of Grain for Green and changing the mode of economic development are crucial for future development. A comparative analysis of the driving factors of ESs in different regions provides a scientific basis for understanding and optimizing management policies.
A large-scale vegetation restoration program that was implemented in China’s Loess Plateau has significantly changed ecosystem patterns, resulting in variations in ecosystem services. However, trade-offs among multiple ecosystem services were rarely considered after land-use changes have occurred. To understand the impact of vegetation restoration on those ecosystem services, 139 soil samples were collected from forestland, shrubland, grassland, and sloping cropland across the Wangmaogou watershed to assess soil organic carbon storage (SOCS), soil water content (SWC), soil total nitrogen storage (STNS), and soil conservation service (SCS) changes. Values of SOCS in shrubland (6.91 kg m−2), grassland (7.18 kg m−2), and forestland (7.31 kg m−2) were higher than in sloping cropland (6.02 kg m−2). Likewise, SCS and STNS were higher in vegetation land-use than in sloping cropland. However, SWC decreased in grassland, shrubland, and forestland compared to sloping cropland. The trends in SWC and other ecosystem services showed high trade-offs. Grassland had higher effects for SWC–SOCS and SWC–STNS than did forest- or shrubland. To coordinate ecosystem services and maintain regional sustainable development, grassland was suggested as a more effective land-use type in the water limited areas. In addition, reasonable planting density should be considered in future vegetation restoration.
There are complex tradeoffs and synergies between ecosystem services. At the regional scale, some ecosystem services play a more critical role in regional ecological security and social development. Therefore, it is necessary to identify key ecosystem services and prioritize their protection and management to ensure their sustainable and effective delivery in a region. This paper proposes a set of research schemes that comprehensively examine the supply, trade-off, and demand of ecosystem services, using the city belt along the Chaobai River in north China as an example for empirical research. Demarcating a 1 km × 1 km area, we first analyze the spatial-temporal supply patterns of Net Primary Productivity (NPP), Water Yield (WY), Soil Retention (SR), Sand Retention (SAR), and Habitat Quality (HQ) from 2010 to 2015 using the CASA, InVEST, USLE, RWEQ and InVEST models, respectively. Thereafter, we define the Regional Key Ecosystem Service (RKES) through regional reality and Spearman correlation analysis among the five ecosystem services. Finally, based on the disparity between the supply and demand of the RKES, we develop a land zoning approach and propose targeted zoning management measures. The results show that WY was the RKES in the study area. The demand for WY did not exceed supply, and the supply and demand were always in a state of mismatch. The stable area with surplus supply and demand of WY was designated as an Ecological Protected Area, a core area to guarantee the RKES. In general, our scheme can be targeted to address the protection of RKES from the perspective of land management. This is of great significance for ensuring regional ecological security and sustainable use of ecosystem services, and could be used to inform the formulation of ecological protection policies.
Changes in land use and ecosystem services influence each other and such changes have consequences for human wellbeing. In this paper, we review the research literature on how different types of ecosystem services are affected by LUC, and the consequences for human well-being. We begin with a review of the different types of ecosystem services. We examine the influence of LUC on provisioning ecosystem services due to mismatches between agricultural production and hydrological systems. We continue with a review of the impacts of LUC on supporting ecosystem services through the conversion of an ecosystem to cultivated land, and the resulting changes in soil properties and the hydrological balance. Next, We also discuss the regulating ecosystem services which are affected by LUC and alters water purification processes, as well as the effects on cultural ecosystem services. We conclude with a review of the valuation and quantification of the effects of LUC on the management of ecosystem services, and propose future research directions. Most of the research reveals a negative impact of LUC on ecosystem services, despite research gaps related to methods for valuing ecosystem services more accurately and for collecting social responses to the impacts of LUC on different ecosystem services.
It has been 20 years since two seminal publications about ecosystem services came out: an edited book by Gretchen Daily and an article in Nature by a group of ecologists and economists on the value of the world's ecosystem services. Both of these have been very highly cited and kicked off an explosion of research, policy, and applications of the idea, including the establishment of this journal. This article traces the history leading up to these publications and the subsequent debates, research, institutions, policies, on-the-ground actions, and controversies they triggered. It also explores what we have learned during this period about the key issues: from definitions to classification to valuation, from integrated modelling to public participation and communication, and the evolution of institutions and governance innovation. Finally, it provides recommendations for the future. In particular, it points to the weakness of the mainstream economic approaches to valuation, growth, and development. It concludes that the substantial contributions of ecosystem services to the sustainable wellbeing of humans and the rest of nature should be at the core of the fundamental change needed in economic theory and practice if we are to achieve a societal transformation to a sustainable and desirable future.
This study initiated a dynamic assessment method of ecosystem service values (ESV), based on an analogy with the labor theory of value, by modifying and developing the method of equivalence factor per unit area. Using such method, the monthly values from 11 categories of ecosystem services provided by China’s ecosystems in 2010 were dynamically estimated. The results indicated that (1) a total ESV of 5.63 trillion US dollars annually was provided, of which forests provided the highest proportion (46.0%), and the regulating services had the highest contribution among the four categories of services (71.3%); (2) the total ESV from 11 categories showed apparent seasonal variation, with higher values from May to September than from November to February which contributed 76.9% and 7.4% to total ESV, respectively; (3) the highest ESV per unit area mainly distributed in southern and eastern areas, and the value generally decreased from southeast to northwest; and (4) the ratio of ESV per capita to the gloss domestic product (GDP) per capita was about 0.87, and such ratio was lowest in the most economically developed and densely populated areas. Therefore, the dynamic assessment method developed in this study can provide a scientific basis for Chinese policy decision-making.
Spatial stratified heterogeneity is the spatial expression of natural and socioeconomic process, which is an important approach for human to recognize nature since Aristotle. Geodetector is a new statistical method to detect spatial stratified heterogeneity and reveal the driving factors behind it. This method with no linear hypothesis has elegant form and definite physical meaning. Here is the basic idea behind Geodetector: assuming that the study area is divided into several subareas. The study area is characterized by spatial stratified heterogeneity if the sum of the variance of subareas is less than the regional total variance; and if the spatial distribution of the two variables tends to be consistent, there is statistical correlation between them. Q-statistic in Geodetector has already been applied in many fields of natural and social sciences which can be used to measure spatial stratified heterogeneity, detect explanatory factors and analyze the interactive relationship between variables. In this paper, the authors will illustrate the principle of Geodetector and summarize the characteristics and applications in order to facilitate the using of Geodetector and help readers to recognize, mine and utilize spatial stratified heterogeneity.
Remotely sensed data have been widely used in recent years for mapping and estimating biomass. However, the characterization of the uncertainty of mapped or estimated biomass in previous studies was either based on ad-hoc approaches (e.g., using model fitting statistics such root mean square errors derived from purposive samples) or mostly limited to the analysis of mean biomass for the whole study area. This study proposed a novel uncertainty analysis method that can characterize biomass uncertainty across multiple spatial scales and multiple spatial resolutions. The uncertainty analysis method built on model-based inference and can propagate errors from trees to field plots, individual pixels, and small areas or large regions that consist of multiple pixels (up to all pixels within a study area). We developed and tested this method over northern Minnesota forest areas of approximately 69,508 km 2 via a unique combination of several datasets for biomass mapping and estimation: wall-to-wall airborne lidar data, national forest inventory (NFI) plots, and destructive measurements of tree aboveground biomass (AGB). We found that the pixel-level AGB prediction error is dominated by lidar-based AGB model residual errors when the spatial resolution is near 380 m or finer and by model parameter estimate errors when the spatial resolution is coarser. We also found that the relative error of AGB predicted from lidar can be reduced to approximately 11% (or mean 5.1 Mg/ha; max 43.6 Mg/ha) at one-hectare scale (or at 100 m spatial resolution) over our study area. Because our uncertainty analysis method uses model-based inference and does not require probability samples of field plots, our methodology has potential applications worldwide, especially over tropics and developing countries where NFI systems are not well-established.
China's national ecosystem assessment
China recently completed its first National Ecosystem Assessment covering the period 2000–2010. Ouyang et al. present the main findings of the assessment. Investment in the restoration and preservation of natural capital has resulted in improvements at the national level in most of the major ecosystem services measured. In particular, food production, carbon sequestration, and soil retention showed strong gains; on the other hand, habitat provision for biodiversity showed a gradual decline. Regional differences remain nonetheless, and there are serious environmental challenges still to be met in areas such as air quality and the wider global footprint of raw material imports.
Science , this issue p. 1455
Spatial stratified heterogeneity, referring to the within-strata variance less than the between strata-variance, is ubiquitous in ecological phenomena, such as ecological zones and many ecological variables. Spatial stratified heterogeneity reflects the essence of nature, implies potential distinct mechanisms by strata, suggests possible determinants of the observed process, allows the representativeness of observations of the earth, and enforces the applicability of statistical inferences. In this paper, we propose a q-statistic method to measure the degree of spatial stratified heterogeneity and to test its significance. The q value is within [0,1] (0 if a spatial stratification of heterogeneity is not significant, and 1 if there is a perfect spatial stratification of heterogeneity). The exact probability density function is derived. The q-statistic is illustrated by two examples, wherein we assess the spatial stratified heterogeneities of a hand map and the distribution of the annual NDVI in China.
Ecosystem products and services are essentials for human survival and development. Gross ecosystem product (GEP) is defined as total values of ecosystem products and services for human welfare and sustainable development. GEP mainly refers to the total value of direct and indirect use values of ecosystem goods and services, including ecosystem provision value, ecological regulation services value and ecological culture services value. The purposes of GEP accounting are to analyze and evaluate the total of economic value supporting for human survival and well-being. There are three basic tasks in GEP accounting, including functional value accounting, figuring out prices and economic value accounting of the ecosystem products and services. Accounting of GEP can be used to reveal the ecosystem contributions to economic and social development and human welfare, analyze the ecological linkages between regions, and assess the effectiveness and benefit of ecosystem conservation. In this paper, GEP of Guizhou Province was accounted as a case study. The evaluation results showed that the GEP of Guizhou in 2010 was 200134.6 million Yuan, the GEP per capita was 57526 Yuan, which was 4.3 times that of the GDP and per capita GDP. The study suggested that, ecosystems played a great role in supporting economic and social development of Guizhou. GEP accounting provides an instrument to understand and assess efficiency and effectiveness of ecosystem protection management and restoration.
Ecosystems and other self-organizing systems develop system designs and mathematics that reinforce energy use, characteristically with alternate pulsing of production and consumption, increasingly recognized as the new paradigm. Insights from the energetics of ecological food chains suggest the need to redefine work, distinguishing kinds of energy with a new quantity, the transformity (energy of one type required per unit of another). Transformities may be used as an energy-scaling factor for the hierarchies of the universe including information. Solar transformities in the biosphere, expressed as solar emjoules per joule, range from one for solar insolation to trillions for categories of shared information. Resource contributions multiplied by their transformities provide a scientifically based value system for human service, environmental mitigation, foreign trade equity, public policy alternatives, and economic vitality.
System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
- U N S Division
The social-economic-natural complex ecosystem
- S J Ma
- R Wang