Trade-offs and Synergies of Ecosystem Services in the Taihu Lake Basin of China

Understanding the spatial interactions among multiple ecosystem services is crucial for ecosystem services management. Ecosystem services, including crop production, freshwater supply, aquatic production, net primary production, soil conservation, water conservation, flood regulation, forest recreation, were measured at 1-km grid scale covering the Taihu Lake Basin (TLB) of China. Our objective is to get a comprehensive understanding of the spatial distributions, trade-offs, synergies of multiple ecosystem services across the TLB. Our results found that: 1) majority of ecosystem services were clustered in space and had a similar spatial distribution pattern with the geographical resource endowment. Most of the landscape contributed a high supply of no services, one or two, and a low supply of three to seven services. 2) There were high correlation between forest recreation and freshwater supply and regulating services. Aquatic production had low correlation with other services. 3) The changes of provisioning services led to trade-offs between regulating services and cultural services in the TLB, while synergies mainly occurred among the provisioning service. 4) The spatial relationships of multiple services are consistent at 1-km spatial scale, counties and provinces. This research could help integrate multiple ecosystem services across scales and serve as a reference for decision making.     

Remote sensing analysis of mangrove distribution and dynamics in Zhanjiang from 1991 to 2011

Mangrove forests provide valuable societal and ecological services and goods. However, they have been experiencing high annual rates of loss in many parts of the world. In order to evaluate a long-term wetland conservation strategy that compromises urban development with comprehensive wetland ecosystem management, remote sensing techniques were used to analyze the changing mangrove distribution in the Zhanjiang Mangrove Forest National Nature Reserve. Between 1991 and 2000, the mangrove area within the study region declined from 2 264.9 to 2 085.9 ha consistent with an annual decrease of 0.79%. However, there was an overall 34.3% increase in mangrove coverage from 2 085.9 to 2 801.8 ha between 2000 and 2011. Major causes of forest loss include local human pressures in the form of deforestation, conversion to agriculture, and natural forces such as erosion. The recent gain in mangrove forest cover is attributed to eff ective conservation management in the nature reserve area, including intensive mangrove plantation eff orts and increased local awareness of wetland conservation.     

自然和自然贡献情景模型研究综述

本文回顾了自然和自然贡献情景模型发展的背景、历史和内容,概括总结了自然和自然贡献情景模型的发展进程以及联合国生物多样性与生态系统服务政府间科学—政策平台(IPBES)情景模型的概念框架,讨论了自然和自然贡献情景模型存在的问题和发展方向。为了在全球层面解决现有综合集成模型存在的问题,根据地球表层建模基本定理和生态环境曲面建模基本定理,提出了具有中国原创特点的自然与自然贡献情景模型概念框架。     

ASSESSMENT OF INDIRECT USE VALUES OF FOREST BIODIVERSITY IN YAOLUOPING NATIONAL NATURE RESERVE, ANHUI PROVINCE

1INTRODUCTIONForestbiodiversityprovidesawiderangeofindirectbenefitstohumanbeing.Whiletheremaybelittlecon-sensusonwhetherthevariouselementsofforestbiodi-versitycanbevaluedineconomicterms, itisincreas-inglyrecognizedthatthesevaluesandtheroleofbio-diversityinmaintainingecologicalservicesareessen-tialtothehumankind.Thenotionofindirectusevalueofbiodiversityhasbeenassociatedwithaminimumlevelofecosysteminfrastructure, withoutwhichtherewouldnotbethegoodsandservicesprovidedbyit(FARNWORTHetal.,1…     

Spatial patterns and driving forces of land change in Tibetan-inhabited Three Rivers Headwaters region,China

The Three Rivers Headwaters Region(TRHR) plays a key role in regulating water supply and climate of East Asia. A comprehensive understanding of the processes and driving forces of the long-term land use dynamics of the TRHR is needed to guide sustainable land resource management and regional ecological conservation strategies. This study examined long-term land change patterns in the TRHR and investigated the driving forces of the change. First, Landsat TM/ETM+ images covering TRHR of four time points from 1987 to 2016 were used to derive land use patterns, and statistical metrics were applied to quantify the spatial and temporal changes. Second, Principal Component Analysis and correlation analysis were employed to analyze environmental and social-economic data to identify the driving forces of land use change. Third, potential influences of the religion of Tibetan Buddhism on land use change were explored using GIS analysis, questionnaire survey and field observation. Results showed that areas of barren land, agricultural land, and built-up land largely increased, while areas of grassland and forest greatly decreased, with the highest change rate occurring in the most recent decade of analysis(from 2007 to 2016). Among the three headwater regions, the Yellow River Headwater Region showed an overall higher changing speed than the other two headwater regions. The regional driving forces of change in TRHR includedsocial-economic development, climatic condition, pressure of population growth, and environmental protection activities. It was also found that Tibetan Buddhism can help slow down the changes caused by human activities.     

Forest ecosystem services and their values in Beijing

As the most important ecosystem in Beijing, the forest supports a lot of ecosystem services to local and around communities, which plays a key role in the maintenance of urban ecological security.However, the valuation on the forest ecosystem services based on regional scale could not provide precise and reasonable values for forestry sector management.In this study, we estimated the magnitudes and economic values of the forest ecosystem services in Beijing at sublot level.The economic value of forest ecosystem services in Beijing was estimated to be 19 339.71×10 6 yuan(RMB) in 2004.Among all the ecosystem services indicators we estimated in this study, only fruit, timber and part of the recreation(which only include the tourism income from the forest parks and scenic areas, but not include that from other forest types) were measured in the social economic system.As estimated in this study, more than 82.19% of the economic value of forest ecosystem services could not be measured in the socio-economic statistical system.The importance of forest ecosystem services in Beijing to human welfare was underestimated by the socio-economic system.Therefore, the policies about the eco-compensation of forest ecosystem services should be established to maintain the sustainable supply of the forest ecosystem services in Beijing.     

What is the relationship between ecosystem services and urbanization? A case study of the mountainous areas in Southwest China

China is undergoing a rapid urbanization process, and urbanization will have a direct impact on regional ecosystems and affect regional ecosystem services. Considering the mountainous counties in Southwestern China as the research object, this study reveals the spatial clustering characteristics of four typical ecosystem services(food production, soil conservation, water yield and carbon sequestration)as well as the trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services in different urbanized areas. At the same time, piecewise linear regression is used to determine the threshold of the influence of urbanization on ecosystem services. The results indicate that: 1) There are spatial autocorrelations among the four typical ecosystem services; with strong clustering characteristics, the positive correlation types are "clustered" locally; and with significant spatial heterogeneity, the negative correlation types are scattered and mainly appear in the highly urbanized area. 2) There are also remarkable differences in the relationship among various ecosystem services in different urbanized areas, and in particular, there are marked trade-offs between food production and carbon sequestration in the moderately urbanized area and the highly urbanized area. However, there are synergies between them in the lowly urbanized area. 3) With an increase in the compounded night light index(CNLI), water yield, carbon sequestration, food production and overall ecosystem services values present an increasing-decreasing trend, the soil conservation function value shows a decreasing-increasing trend.The response of water yield, carbon sequestration,food production, and overall ecosystem services to the compounded night light index(CNLI) has a threshold of 1.2642, 1.4833, 1.3388, 1.5146 and 1.2237,respectively. Based on the detected relationships between urbanization and ecosystem services, this study provides a theoretical reference for the selection of urbanization development models in key ecological functional areas.     

Hydrological services by mountain ecosystems in Qilian Mountain of China: A review

Hydrological service is a hot issue in the current researches of ecosystem service, particularly in the upper reaches of mountain rivers in dry land areas, where the Qilian Mountain is a representative one. The Qilian Mountain, where forest, shrubland and grassland consist of its main ecosystems, can provide fresh water and many other ecosystem services, through a series of eco-hydrological process such as precipitation interception, soil water storage, and fresh water provision. Thus, monitoring water regulation and assessing the hydrological service of the Qilian Mountain are meaningful and helpful for the healthy development of the lower reaches of arid and semi-arid areas. In recent 10 years, hydrological services have been widely researched in terms of scale and landscape pattern, including water conservation, hydrological responses to afforestation and their ecological effects. This study, after analyzing lots of current models and applications of geographical information system (GIS) in hydrological services, gave a scientific and reasonable evaluation of mountain ecosystem in eco-hydrological services, by employing the combination of international forefronts and contentious issues into the Qilian Mountain. Assessments of hydrological services at regional or larger scales are limited compared with studies within watershed scale in the Qilian Mountain. In our evaluation results of forest ecosystems, it is concluded that long-term observation and dynamic monitoring of different types of ecosystem are indispensable, and the hydrological services and the potential variation in water supplement on regional and large scales should be central issues in the future research.     

Changes in ecosystem service of soil conservation between 2000 and 2010 and its driving factors in southwestern China

Human activities significantly alter ecosystems and their services; however, quantifying the impact of human activities on ecosystems has been a great challenge in ecosystem management. We used the Universal Soil Loss Equation and county-level socioeconomic data to assess the changes in the ecosystem service of soil conservation between 2000 and 2010, and to analyze its spatial characteristics and driving factors in the southwestern China. The results showed that cropland in the southwestern China decreased by 3.74%, while urban land, forest, and grassland areas increased by 46.78%, 0.86%, and 1.12%, respectively. The soil conservation increased by 1.88 × 10~(11) kg, with deterioration only in some local areas. The improved and the degraded areas accounted for 6.41% and 2.44% of the total land area, respectively. Implementation of the Sloping Land Conversion Program and urbanization explained 57.80% and 23.90% of the variation in the soil conservation change, respectively, and were found to be the main factors enhancing soil conservation. The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake was one of the factors that led to the degradation of soil conservation. Furthermore, industrial adjustment, by increasing shares of Industry and Service and reducing those of Agriculture, has also promoted soil conservation. Our results quantitatively showed and emphasized the contributions to soil conservation improvement made by implementing ecological restoration programs and promoting urbanization. Consequently, these results provide basic information to improve our understanding of the effects of ecological restoration programs, and help guide future sustainable urban development and regional industrial restructuring.     

Optimizing hotspot areas for ecological planning and management based on biodiversity and ecosystem services

The significance of biodiversity and ecosystem services are gradually recognized by human as an approach towards sustainability, so it is important to understand relationships and congruence between them to support conservation planning, especially in the hotspot areas with a prominent role in conservation. However, the management of most conservation hotspots mainly focused on biodiversity, and rarely concerned with ecosystem services. With the aim of proposing criteria for conservation strategies that contribute to the optimization of biodiversity and ecosystem services, in this study, a Geographic Information System(GIS)-based approach was designed to estimate and map the biodiversity and ecosystem services in Chongqing Municipality of China. Furthermore, the distributions of hotspot areas for biodiversity and ecosystem services were mapped based on the relationship between cumulative ecosystem services and areas. Finally the statistical analysis was processed focused on specific conservation objectives. The results showed that hotspot areas can conserve the most biodiversity but with the least ecosystem services under the conservation plans target to biodiversity conservation. In contrast, depending on the ecosystem services of interest, hotspot areas can conserve the largest ecosystem services but with the least biodiversity. By integrating biodiversity and ecosystem services into conservation plan, we found that the conservation and regeneration of these small areas, would contribute to a conservation of 44% of the biodiversity hotspot and 14%–42% of the ecosystem services hotspot. Moreover, the current nature reserve selection was not maximize the biodiversity and ecosystem services compared to integration strategy, indicating that hotspot areas conservation and selection is vital for optimization protection of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and has practical significance for natural resources and ecosystem management.     

Wetland economic valuation approaches and prospects in China

Ecosystem services valuation seeks to increase the social relevance of ecosystem characteristics, the underlying biological mechanisms that support services, by making the contribution of ecosystems to human well-being explicit. Economic valuation can help management by clarifying the full range of benefits and costs of proposed management actions. In the past two decades, economic valuation of wetland ecosystem services has become one of the most significant scientific priorities for wetland protection. In this paper, we provide an overview of ecosystem services, and summarize the main interdisciplinary approaches to measure and value wetland ecosystem services. We identified four main methodological gaps preventing progress on wetland valuation of ecosystem services in China, which are: 1) confusion on terminology like intermediate and final ecosystem services, 2) lack of ecological production functions to link ecosystem characteristics to final ecosystem services, 3) static valuation making it difficult to evaluate the trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services, and 4) lack of clear guidance on relating ecological compensation programs to conservation targets. Overcoming these gaps is important to inform wetland compensation mechanisms and conservation policies. We propose future research on wetland ecosystem services in China should be focused on: 1) defining final ecosystem services based on beneficiary preferences and underlying biophysical mechanisms, 2) establishing wetland monitoring programs at specific sites to collect data on final ecosystem service indicators and ecosystem characteristic metrics to create ecological production functions for economic valuation and rescaling techniques, and 3) incorporating wetland ecosystem service values into decision-making processes to inform wetland management.     

福州土地利用变化及其驱动力多元综合分析

运用地球信息技术对福州土地利用变化特征和驱动力进行了深入分析。主要以TM数据作为信息源获取两时相土地利用状况及其变化信息:用GPS快速提供变化区准确的空间位置信息和野外调查时的快速定位;并利用GIS对多种数据进行处理、集成管理、空间统计和相关分析;对土地利用变化驱动力进一步研究。     

Effects of Land Use Change on Ecosystem Services in Arid Area Ecological Migration

Ecological migration is the process of increasing the population density in the immigration area and transferring the ecological pressure from emigration area to immigration area. This process may result in significant changes in land use and land cover in the area of immigration and have an important effect on ecosystem services. Therefore, scientifically revealing the effects and differentiation mechanisms of ecological migration on ecosystem services is becoming an important issue related to the implementation of the national ecological migration strategy in China. This study employed the Hongsibu District as a typical example of ecological migration. Hongsibu District is located in the central Ningxia steppe and desert steppe areas. Remote sensing data covering five periods from the period before ecological migration in 1995 and after migration in 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015 was used to measure the value of ecosystem services(ESV). A geographical detector model and the value of ecosystem services model were used to diagnose the dynamic mechanism of the effects of land use change on ecosystem services. The results showed that: 1) The development of large-scale ecological resettlement has caused the area of cultivated land and urbanized land area to increase significantly in the area of immigration, while the grass area decreased significantly. 2) The overall value of the Hongsibu ecosystem services increased in a form of a ‘V'. Among them, during the period of 1995–2005, the overall ESV decreased and had an annual rate of change of-0.67%. During the period of development 2005–2015, the ESV increased steadily, with an annual rate of change of 0.79%. 3) The proportion and total ESV in soil formation and protection, waste treatment, and biodiversity conservation of the Hongsibu District decreased from 57.61% in 1995 to 56.17% in 2015, indicating that the region's ecological regulation function slightly decreased. 4) The ESV in the Hongsibu District, showed a low distribution pattern of ecosystem services increasing from northeast to southwest, and the capacity of three townships, Hongsibu, Taiyangshan, and Liuquan, to provide ecosystem services gradually declined over time. The ecological service function of Xinzhuangji Township and Dahe Township gradually improved. 5) The sensitivity index of the ESV of each land use type was less than 1, indicating that the environment lacks flexibility in providing a strong ESV index in Hongsibu, which shows that the research results are reliable and believable. 6) During the study period, the decisive force of the change of land use on ecosystem services in Hongsibu District was: grassland(0.9934), climate regulation(0.9413), soil formation and protection(0.9321) and waste treatment(0.9241).     

夜间灯光数据支持下西藏人类活动强度变化对生态系统调节服务的影响

西藏自治区特殊的高寒生态系统对人类活动具有高度敏感性,定量评估系列政策实施下西藏生态系统调节服务对人类活动强度变化的响应有助于西藏生态政策和空间规划的调整完善。本研究基于西藏1980年和2015年土地利用现状数据及1992—2013年DMSP/OLS夜间灯光指数数据,借助GIS空间分析功能分析了居民点用地和夜间灯光强度的变化;并结合生态系统调节服务空间数据,利用相关分析对居民点用地和夜间灯光变化所反映的人类活动强度变化对西藏生态系统水土保持和防风固沙服务的影响进行研究。结果表明：① 1980—2015年,西藏新增居民点用地212.06 km²,减少居民点用地44.99 km²,其中,新增居民点用地中62%为城镇用地,减少的居民点用地中95.88%为农村居民点;居民点用地变化主要发生在藏南河谷区;② 自治区内居民点用地扩张一定程度上直接导致夜间灯光强度增加,“一江两河”流域土地整治工程和农牧民安居工程等促进了当地人类活动强度增加,区内部分乡镇因进城务工和易地扶贫搬迁造成了当地人类活动强度的下降;③ 西藏2015年防风固沙服务较1990年有整体增强趋势,水土保持服务除藏东高山峡谷区外均有大幅度退化趋势;④ 对居民点用地进行的还林、还草整治工程等人类活动有利于促进生态系统防风固沙服务的恢复;人类活动强度的增加极易导致水土保持服务的退化,“一江两河”流域体现最为明显。研究能为西藏国土空间规划和生态政策的制定和调整提供参考。     

LAND USE CHANGE AND ITS SOCIO-ECONOMIC DRIVING FORCES UNDER STRESS OF PROJECT IN OLD RESERVOIR AREA——Case Study of Linshui Reservoir Area of Dahonghe Reservoir in Sichuan Province

1IN TR O D U C TIO NA s old as hum anity itself, land use change has runthrough the w hole history ofhum an existence and evo-lution. This change has not only objectively recordedthe space patterns of the earth surface changed by hu-m ankind,but also redi…     

浙江省森林生态服务价值估算及其逐月变异分析

森林生态服务价值的研究对构建绿色GDP核算体系、制定生态补偿标准、提高人类环境保护意识等有十分重要的意义。本文首先以卫星影像、地理空间数据、站点记录等资料,结合GIS、RS技术,估算了浙江省森林生态系统2010年的NPP、蒸散量、土壤保持量等;然后,采用能量替代法、机会成本法、影子工程法等估算了浙江省森林2010年的固碳释氧价值、有机物生产价值、水源涵养价值、营养物循环价值、水土保持价值;最后,对各种生态服务价值的逐月变异规律进行分析。结果表明：浙江省森林2010年的5种生态服务价值呈现明显的逐月变异规律;固碳释氧价值、有机物生产价值、营养物质循环价值、水土保持价值的逐月变异规律,均可用开口向下抛物线拟合;水源涵养价值的逐月变异规律,可用开口向上抛物线拟合。     

新疆吐鲁番地区土遗址及其环境变化空间信息分析

新疆吐鲁番地区的土遗址数量较多,且具有重要历史文化价值,故对土遗址及其环境的时空变化研究具有重要意义。目前,对大型土遗址的发现保护多利用考古、实地调查和空间信息技术等方法。鉴此,本文分析了吐鲁番地区土遗址及其内外部环境的变化。研究结果表明,20世纪60年代至2010年间该区域土遗址本体及其内部环境发生了较大变化,其主要影响因素是病害发育和人为破坏。病害主要为裂隙与坍塌、风害、酥碱病害、水蚀、表层剥落、生物病害等,其中,普遍的病害是裂隙与坍塌和风害。1990-2010年,研究区土遗址外部地表环境发生了较大变化,耕地和居民地明显增加,草地和未利用地明显减少,尤其是交河故城和高昌故城这2个世界文化遗产区域发生的变化更明显。土遗址周围的人类活动强度在增加,绿洲内部土遗址的外部环境较绿洲边缘或外部更加剧烈;内部的土遗址更容易受到人类活动的影响,而外部环境变化的主要影响因素是人类的耕地和居民地开发活动。     

Do Forest Landscape Pattern Planning and Optimization Play a Role in Enhancing Soil Conservation Services in Mountain Areas of Western China?

The relationship between landscape patterns and soil conservation, as well as the need for nature-based soil erosion control and landscape pattern optimization, have increasingly gained attention in the scientific and political community in the past decade. With the implementation of a series of afforestation/reforestation projects in the western China, the optimization and management of forest landscape patterns will become more important for soil conservation. In this study, the Bailongjiang Watershed(BLJW), in the western China, was used as a case study to explore the relationship between the forest landscape pattern and soil conservation services using mathematical and spatial statistics methods. A spatially-explicit model called the sediment delivery ratio(SDR) model of the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs(InVEST) was used to assess the soil conservation service in each sub-basin of BLJW in 1990, 2002, and 2014, and landscape indices were used to describe changes in forest landscape patterns in each sub-basin. Nine forest landscape indices, including the percentage of landscape(PLAND), largest patch index(LPI), edge density(ED), landscape shape index(LSI), mean patch shape(SHAPE_MN), patch cohesion index(COHESION), landscape division index(DIVISION), splitting index(SPLIT) and aggregation index(AI), were significantly correlated to the soil conservation service. PLAND, AI, LSI and SPLIT of forestland were determined to be the more important landscape indicators. The results also indicated that soil conservation was substantially scale-dependent. The results demonstrated that landscape type diversity greatly affected watershed soil conservation and can be used for forest landscape restoration and management. Furthermore, spatial statistics analysis indicated that the Spatial Lag Model(SLM) was superior to the Ordinary Least Squares(OLS) for soil conservation regressions in 1990 and 2014, while OLS was more appropriate for the regression in 2002. These findings will be useful for enhancing soil conservation and for optimizing mountainous forest landscape patterns for afforestation/reforestation and regional development. Future planning and implementation of ecological restoration should focus more on strategic spatial planning and integrated landscape management with full consideration of future climate, water availability/consumption, hydrological regime, topography, and watershed features, especially on afforestation and revegetation projects in western mountainous China, where the socio-ecological system is fragile and poor.     

LAND USE CHANGE AND ITS SOCIO-ECONOMIC DRIVING FORCES UNDER STRESS OF PROJECT IN OLD RESERVOIR AREA —— Case Study of Linshui Reservoir Area of Dahonghe Reservoir in Sichuan Province

The old reservoir areas built in 1950s- 1970s left behind many socio-economic problems, because of the administrative backward migration and little migration fund, and all these problems would be tied to land. Based on interviewing with peasant households, combining land use survey and socio-economic statistical index, this paper analyzed land use change and its corresponding driving forces in Linshui reservoir area of Dahonghe Reservoir. Results showed that land use change in the reservoir area was mainly embodied on low-lying land submergence and migration requisition land. The former changed the land use patterns, and the latter mainly reconstructed original land property and made land over-fragmented. Cultivated land per capita was 0.041ha in this area, below the cordon of cultivated land per capita enacted by FAO. Currently, there were still 30.25% of peasant households being short of grain in trimester of one year, and there were 35.27% of people living under the poverty line. The conditions of eco-environmerit in Linshui Reservoir Area were worse, and healthy and sub-healthy eco-environment accounted for less proportion, composed of green belt around the reservoir area and paddy field ecosystem, and economic forest and orchard ecosystem, respectively. The stress of the reservoir project was macroscopic background to analyze the driving factors of land use change, and real underlying diving factor of the land use change in the area was the change of cultural landscape under the stress of reservoir project. The rapid increase of population was the key factor to induce the change of man-land relationship in the reservoir area, the low level of rural economy was the crucial factor to decide how migrants input for production, and the belief of migrants, influencing the land use patterns in a certain extent, was the inducing factor to keep land use stable. The low-lying submergence and infrastructure construction accompanied the reservoir project were leading factors driving land use change in the area, while changes in land use patterns, after the reservoir being built, were the responses of peasant households＇ behaviors to land use change.     

2000-2010年新疆陆地生态系统变化格局与分析

本文以Landsat TM/ETM+数据和HJ-1卫星CCD数据,系统分析了2000-2010年新疆地区陆地生态系统变化。10年间,新疆地区建设用地、农田和湿地生态系统迅速扩张,分别增加了30.5%、26.7%和10.2%;草地与灌丛生态系统则大量减少,分别减少了2.4%和5.1%;冰川积雪减少也较为明显,减少了1.6%;荒漠和森林生态系统变化较小。生态系统变化热点区域主要分布在传统绿洲区,尤其是天山南北麓的绿洲区。水利设施改善与灌溉节水技术进步,以及国家西部开发战略导致灌草地被大量开垦为农田,人口增长则是建设用地增加的主因;全球气候变暖使冰川积雪减少明显,20世纪60年代至今面积减少了16.7%~32.5%,导致山区湿地生态系统增加;国家生态环境保护工程则有效地遏制了林地与荒漠生态系统的恶化趋势。山地水源涵养区除了要严格控制森林砍伐外,还要严格禁止灌草的开垦,控制绿洲农田的增加和重视生态过渡带的保护,并加强全球气候变化对新疆水资源影响的研究,以制定相关对策。