Assessment of ecological importance of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau based on ecosystem service flows

Assessments of ecological importance based on static indexes that do not consider service flows frequently underestimate the importance of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau as a "source". On the basis of natural environmental characteristics, this study selected six type of ecosystem services for evaluation, including water retention, soil retention, carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, sandstorm prevention, and tourism. According to the attributes of each ecosystem service flow, we calculated the flow length and traffic accessibility indexes, using Arc GIS hydrological module and kernel functions separately, to comprehensively analyse the ecological importance levels of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Results showed that after considering the service flows, the ecologically important zone shifted to the core area of the Three River Source Region, such as Zadoi County located in the Tanggula Mountains. The area of extreme importance is mainly distributed in the Yarlung Zangbo River basin, Tanggula Mountains, Hengduan Mountains, and Qilian Mountains, which accounts for 31.7% of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, providing approximately 60% of the ecosystem services and having extremely high protection efficiency and protection value. By introducing ecosystem service flow indexes, this study confirmed the ecological importance of core source areas such as the Tanggula Mountains, weakened the space bias caused by not considering the spatial transfer of ecosystem services, and provided technical support for optimizing ecological protection strategies and coordinating regional development.     

Simulating impact of larch caterpillar (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Dendrolimus superans</Emphasis>) on fire regime and forest landscape in Da Hinggan Mountains,Northeast China

Larch caterpillar (Dendrolimus superans) is very common in the Da Hinggan Mountains, Northeast China, affecting fire regime and forest ecosystem change at large spatio-temporal scales. In this study, we used a spatially explicit landscape model, LANDIS, to simulate the changes of fire regime and forest landscape under four larch caterpillar disturbance intensity levels scenarios in Huzhong forest area, northern of Da Hinggan Mountains. The results indicate that larch caterpillar disturbances would decrease ...     

Value Assessment of Wetland Ecosystem Services in the Da Hinggan Mountains,China

This study examined regional differences in ecosystem services for the Da Hinggan Mountains(DHM),China.A correction index was constructed based on ten-year aver...     

三北工程区植被恢复对土壤风蚀的影响及植被恢复潜力研究

三北地区是我国重要的生态屏障,分析2000—2019年三北防护林体系建设工程（简称：三北工程）区植被恢复时空变化状况,厘定人类活动与气候要素对植被恢复的贡献,探究植被恢复对土壤风蚀影响,评估植被恢复潜力空间,可为三北防护林体系建设工程未来规划管理和科学施策提供参考。本文在选取植被覆盖度和植被净初级生产力表征植被恢复状况基础上,利用地面数据,结合模型模拟,定量评估了2000—2019年三北防护林体系建设工程区植被恢复程度及其对土壤风蚀的影响,并对植被恢复潜力进行探究。研究结果表明：① 2000—2019年植被恢复程度高、较高的面积,占总面积的35.29%和13.16%,主要分布在黄土高原区及北部区域和风沙区与东北华北平原农区的部分地区。人类活动与气候因素对植被恢复贡献率为10.45%和89.55%;② 土壤风蚀以轻度侵蚀和微度侵蚀为主,呈逐年下降趋势,剧烈侵蚀面积减少了66.45%,防风固沙服务得到进一步提升。植被恢复程度与土壤风蚀模数呈负相关关系,植被恢复程度较好有助于降低土壤风蚀模数;③ 三北工程区森林、草地和荒漠生态系统仍有8.16%的恢复潜力,内蒙古高原北部部分地区、哈顺戈壁北部和准噶尔盆地西北部及周边区域、黄土高原南部部分区域存在较大恢复潜力。     

Tradeoffs and synergies between ecosystem services : A comparison of the karst and non-karst area

Under the influence of various natural and human factors, the relationship between the ecosystem services provided for human beings by a karst ecosystem is becoming increasingly complex, profoundly limiting the effective and sustainable development of the social economy and ecosystem protection in karst areas. Taking Guizhou, China as an example, which includes both karst(including five different landforms) and non-karst area, the study explored and compared the tradeoff and synergy between ecosystem services in both terrain types. The results showed higher change rates of water yield and soil retention in karst areas than those in non-karst areas, with only small differences in the carbon storage and crop production change. The ecosystem service relationships in the karst area from 1995 to 2005 were consistent with the relationships in the non-karst area. However, differences were observed in most of these relationships from 2005 to 2015. The relationships between ecosystem services in different karst landforms from 1995 to 2005 remained the same, but there are differences found in the relationships of ecosystem services from 2005 to 2015. The trade-off and synergistic relationships between ecosystem services in the different landforms were closely related to the changes of climate and land use, particularly related to rainfall, rainfall erosivity, farmland, and forestland.     

RS AND GIS-BASED FOREST FIRE RISK ZONE MAPPING IN DA HINGGAN MOUNTAINS

1INTRODUCTIONForests are one of the major natural resources that per-form important environmental and recreational func-tions (COSTANZA and GROOT, 1997). It is well known that forests can absorb atmospheric carbon, maintain a certain degree of humidity in atmosphere, regulate rainfall, moderate temperature, and restrain soil erosion, etc. (AURELIA, 2003). So, the health of a forest in any given area is a very important indicator of the ecological conditions. But fire is the great…     

Dynamic Analysis of Supply and Demand Coupling of Ecosystem Services in Loess Hilly Region: A Case Study of Lanzhou,China

The relationship between the supply and demand for ecosystem services(ESs) is a key issue for the rational allocation of natural resources and optimisation of sustainable development capacity. This paper investigateed the dynamic evolution features of supply and demand of four ESs in Lanzhou of China, namely, water supply, food supply, carbon fixation and soil retention services. The crosssectional data of 2005 and 2017 were used for calculating ESs value and its supply and demand through ArcGIS software, InVEST model, elastic coefficient model and coupling coordination model. Results showed that: 1) from 2005 to 2017, the supply of water supply services increased, the demand of soil retention services decreased, and the supply and demand of food supply and carbon fixation services increased. The high-value areas of service supply were mainly distributed in the rocky mountain areas in the southeast and northwest with high vegetation coverage, while the high-value areas of demand were mainly distributed in the urban areas and surrounding areas with high population density. 2) There were five different types of coupling relations. Water supply service was dominated by a negative coupling type D, which means that the decrease in demand for ESs has had a positive response on the supply of ESs. Negative coupling type C was the main type of food supply and carbon fixation services, which means that the increase in demand for ESs has had a negative response on the supply of ESs. All three services were supplemented by a positive coupling type A, which means that the increase in demand for ESs has had a positive response on the supply of ESs. Soil retention service generally exhibits a positive coupling type B, which means that the decrease in demand for ESs has had a negative response on the supply of ESs. 3) Over the past12 yr, the coordination degree of supply and demand of water supply, food supply and soil retention services decreased, and the coordination degree of carbon fixation service increased. Various types of ES had a low degree of coupling and coordination, showing different characteristics of temporal and spatial evolution. The areas with imbalanced ESs supply and demand were mainly distributed in urban areas dominated by construction land. The research results are valuable to the optimisation of urban and rural ecological environments and the sustainable development of territory space under the framework of ecological civilisation, including similar ecologically vulnerable areas in other developing countries.     

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.     

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.     

A project of sustainable utilization of forest resources supported by GIS

lINThODUCnoNResourcesarethefoundationofeconomicdevel-opment,andsustainabledevelopmentistheinevitabletrendofhumandevelopment.Thesustainabedevel-opmentofChineseforestryisanimPOrtantPOrtionofChinesesustainabledevelopmentstrategy,andforestresourceisthekeyproblemofsustaialleforestryde-velopment.Therefore,exploringthereasonableforestresourcemanagementandutilizationprojecthasimpor-tantsignificancefortherealizationofsustainableforestrydevelopment-DaHingganMountainsforestdistrictisoneoftheimPOrt…     

中国东北三省大豆虚拟水时空分异及其影响因素研究

水资源分布不均制约了地区农业生产。从虚拟水角度研究作物需水的时空变化特征及影响因素对提高水资源的合理配置与利用效率,缓解地区水资源短缺问题具有重要参考意义。本文基于Penman-Monteith模型和GIS地统计分析工具,从虚拟水视角分析1986-2012年东北大豆生长季内的需水量变化和虚拟水时空分异特征及其影响因素。结果表明：①1986-2012年,东北地区大豆生长季增温明显,平均风速下降显著,相对湿度整体下降,日照时数有增有减,气候暖干化趋势加剧。②东北大豆生长季内需水量西南多东北少,南部地区需水量减少而北部增加。平均风速的显著下降导致大豆需水量减少,其余气象因子变化均导致需水量增加,温度变化对需水量影响最大,相对贡献率为36.9%,其次为相对湿度、日照时数和平均风速。③大豆虚拟水的空间分布整体为西多东少,虚拟水变化以下降为主（80.6%站点）。虚拟水高值区集中于东北地区西部,向东虚拟水含量降低。气候变化导致了大豆需水量的增加,进而使虚拟水上升,大豆生产变化尤其是单产增长则使得虚拟水下降,气候变化对大豆虚拟水的影响抵消了部分大豆生产变化导致的虚拟水下降。因此,针对大豆虚拟水的时空分异特征,适当调整东北地区大豆的生产布局、选取如耐高温耐旱等大豆品种以及调整灌溉、施肥等田间管理措施等是气候变化背景下提高大豆水资源利用效率的有效适应措施。     

Tree Planting:How Fast Can It Accelerate Post-fire Forest Restoration?——A Case Study in Northern Da Hinggan Mountains,China

In 1987,a catastrophic fire burned over 1330000 ha in the densely forested area of the Da Hinggan Mountains in the northeastern China.After the fire,intensive management including burned trunk harvesting and coniferous tree planting had been conducted to accelerate forest restoration.To study the long term effect of these activities on forest recovery,we used a simulation modeling approach to study long-term(300 years) forest dynamics under current planting and natural regeneration scenarios.Results indicat...     

Responses of soil fauna structure and leaf litter decomposition to effective microorganism treatments in Da Hinggan Mountains, China

Microorganisms are nutritious resources for various soil fauna.Although soil fauna grazing affects microorganism composition and decomposition rate,the responses of soil fauna and leaf litter decomposition to added microorganism is little understood.In this study,in the coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest of Tahe County in the northern Da Hinggan Mountains,China,three sampling sites(each has an area of 10 m2) were selected.The first two sites were sprinkled with 250 times(EM1) and 1000 times(EM2) diluted effective microorganism(EM) preparations evenly,and the third site was sprinkled with the same volume of water as a control site.The responses of soil fauna structure and leaf litter decomposition to EM treatment were conducted during three years.The results revealed that EM treatment resulted in significant increase of soil organic matter.The number of soil fauna in the EM1 and EM2 sites increased by 12.88% and 2.23% compared to the control site,and among them springtails and mites showed the highest increase.However,the groups of soil fauna in the EM1 and EM2 sites decreased by 6 and 9,respectively.And the changes in the diversity and evenness index were relatively complicated.EM treatment slowed the decomposition of broad-leaved litter,but accelerated the decomposition of coniferous litter.However,the decomposition rate of broad-leaved litter was still higher than that of coniferous litter.The results of this study suggested that the added microorganisms could help individual growth of soil fauna,and this method led to a change in the process of leaf litter decomposition.This paper did not analyze the activity of soil microorganisms,thus it is difficult to clearly explain the complex relationships among litter type,soil fauna and soil microorganisms.Further research on this subject is needed.     

秦巴山区植被覆盖与土壤湿度时空变化特征及其相互关系

基于2001-2014年MODIS-NDVI和MODIS-LST数据,利用温度植被干旱指数对土壤湿度进行遥感反演,分析了秦巴山区植被覆盖与土壤湿度时空变化特征及其相互关系。研究发现：① 秦巴山区植被覆盖与土壤湿度均呈增加趋势;② 植被覆盖整体水平较高且表现出“四周低,中间高”的空间分布特征,土壤湿度整体表现出“北低南高”的空间分布特征,大体上二者呈现出空间分布正相关性;③ 植被改善趋势表现明显,显著改善区分布分散,无明显集中区域,退化区域主要集中于北部渭河沿岸及东部边缘少量地区;土壤湿度增长态势明显,增大区分布于除西北边缘及东北边缘外的几乎整个研究区中,减小区域面积小且大部分表现不显著;④ 秦巴山区植被覆盖与土壤湿度时空变化上呈现出明显的正相关性,其中69.71%的区域表现出土壤湿度增大-植被覆盖改善的特征,分布于研究区除四周边缘地带外的大部分地区。     

CLIMATIC TREND INDICATED BY VARIATIONS OF GLACIERS AND LAKES IN THE TIANSHAN MOUNTAINS

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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.     

Assessing spatio-temporal characteristics of water storage changes in the mountainous areas of Central Asia based on GRACE

The mountainous areas of Central Asia provide substantial water resources, and studying change in water storage and the impacts of precipitation and snow cover in the mountain ranges of Central Asia is of the greatest importance for understanding regional water shortages and the main factors. Data from the GRACE(Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellites, precipitation products and snow-covered area data were used to analyze the spatio-temporal characteristics of water storage changes and the effects of precipitation and snow cover from April 2002 to December 2013. The results were computed for each mountain ranges, and the following conclusions were drawn. The water storage in the mountainous areas of Central Asia as a whole increases in summer and winter, whereas it decreases in autumn. The water storage is affected by precipitation to some extent and some areas exhibit hysteresis. The area of positive water storage changes moves from west to east over the course of the year. The water storage declined during the period 2002–2004. It then returned to a higher level in 2005–2006 and featured lower levels in 2007–2009 Subsequently, the water storage increased gradually from 2010 to 2013. The Eastern Tianshan Mountains and Western Tianshan Mountain subzones examined in this study display similar tendencies, and the trends observed in the Karakorum Mountains and the Kunlun Mountains are also similar. However, the Eastern Tianshan Mountains and Western Tianshan Mountains were influenced by precipitation to a greater degree than the latter two ranges. The water storage in Qilian Mountains showed a pronounced increasing trend, and this range is the most strongly affected by precipitation. Based on an analysis of all investigated subzones, precipitation has the greatest influence on total water storage relative to the snow covered area in some areas of Central Asia. The results obtained from this study will be of value for scientists studying the mechanisms that influence changes in water storage in Central Asia.     

Trade-offs and Synergies of Ecosystem Services in Karst Area of China Driven by Grain-for-Green Program

As an important means regulating the relationship between human and natural ecosystem,ecological restoration program plays a key role in restoring ecosystem functions.The Grain-for-Green Program(GFGP,One of the world’s most ambitious ecosystem conservation set-aside programs aims to transfer farmland on steep slopes to forestland or grassland to increase vegetation coverage)has been widely implemented from 1999 to 2015 and exerted significant influence on land use and ecosystem services(ESs).In this study,three ecological models(In VEST,RUSLE,and CASA)were used to accurately calculate the three key types of ESs,water yield(WY),soil conservation(SC),and net primary production(NPP)in Karst area of southwestern China from 1982 to 2015.The impact of GFGP on ESs and trade-offs was analyzed.It provides practical guidance in carrying out ecological regulation in Karst area of China under global climate change.Results showed that ESs and trade-offs had changed dramatically driven by GFGP.In detail,temporally,SC and NPP exhibited an increasing trend,while WY exhibited a decreasing trend.Spatially,SC basically decreased from west to east;NPP basically increased from north to south;WY basically increased from west to east;NPP and SC,SC and WY developed in the direction of trade-offs driven by the GFGP,while NPP and WY developed in the direction of synergy.Therefore,future ecosystem management and restoration policy-making should consider trade-offs of ESs so as to achieve sustainable provision of ESs.     

Remote sensing of ecosystem services: An opportunity for spatially explicit assessment

Ecosystem service is an emerging concept that grows to be a hot research area in ecology. Spatially explicit ecosystem service values are important for ecosystem service management. However, it is difficult to quantify ecosystem services. Remote sensing provides images covering Earth surface, which by nature are spatially explicit. Thus, remote sensing can be useful for quantitative assessment of ecosystem services. This paper reviews spatially explicit ecosystem service studies conducted in ecology and remote sensing in order to find out how remote sensing can be used for ecosystem service assessment. Several important areas considered include land cover, biodiversity, and carbon, water and soil related ecosystem services. We found that remote sensing can be used for ecosystem service assessment in three different ways: direct monitoring, indirect monitoring, and combined use with ecosystem models. Some plant and water related ecosystem services can be directly monitored by remote sensing. Most commonly, remote sensing can provide surrogate information on plant and soil characteristics in an ecosystem. For ecosystem process related ecosystem services, remote sensing can help measure spatially explicit parameters. We conclude that acquiring good in-situ measurements and selecting appropriate remote sensor data in terms of resolution are critical for accurate assessment of ecosystem services.     

Quantitative division of succession and spatial patterns among different stand developmental stages in Changbai Mountains

Broadleaf-Korean pine forests exhibit high species richness and distinctive species composition, which are currently becoming more dominant among natural forests in Changbai Mountains of northeastern China. Understanding the ecological process of restored vegetation is quite important for ecosystem reconstruction. Distinguishing stand development stages and analyzing the dynamic spatial patterns could provide insights into significant community coexistence mechanisms. In the present study, eight permanent study areas were established according to the substituting space for time method in Changbai Mountains of north-eastern China. The optimal division method was used to quantify the successional series into different stand development stages, and the point pattern analysis method(L(r) function) was used to analyse the dynamic changes in spatial patterns and interspecific associations. Our results suggested that:(1) The stand development process was divided into five stages: the first three stages were poplar-birch secondary forests in different stages of recovery, the fourth stage was thespruce-fir mixed forest, and the last stage was the primary broadleaf-Korean pine forest;(2) The spatial pattern showed an aggregated distribution at a small scale and changed to a random distribution as the scale increased in poplar-birch secondary forests, but the spatial pattern appeared to be randomly distributed in spruce-fir mixed forest and broadleafKorean pine forest;(3) The interspecific associations between pioneer species and climax species changed from negative to positive among the different stand stages, and environmental resources were shared among these species. Interspecific differences in shade tolerance among the tree species were key determinants of forest dynamics and structure. Our study is vital to the understanding of the forest development; thus, the spatial change features should receive greater attention when forest management is being planned and restoration strategies are being developed for the Changbai Mountains.