Valuation of lake and marsh wetlands ecosystem services in China

Wetlands are highly productive natural ecosystems, providing valuable goods and services. There is growing interest in transferring ecosystem service value from the existing wetlands studied to other wetlands ecosystems at a large geographic scale. The benefit transfer method uses the known values from wetlands to predict the value of other wetland sites. This methodology requires only limited time and resources. The present study calculated the value of the ecological services provided by lake and marsh wetlands in China in terms of biodiversity indices, water quality indices and economic indices. Basic data on wetlands were obtained through remote sensing images. The results show that: 1) The total ecosystem service value of the lake and marsh wetlands in 2008 was calculated to be 8.1841 × 10¹⁰ United States Dollars (USD), with the marsh and lake wetlands contributing 5.6329 × 10¹⁰ and 2.5512 × 10¹⁰ USD, respectively. Values of marsh ecosystem service were concentrated in Heilongjiang Province (2.5516 × 10¹⁰ USD), Qinghai Province (1.2014 × 10¹⁰ USD), and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (1.1884 × 10¹⁰ USD). The value of the lakes were concentrated in Tibet Autonomous Region (6.223 × 10⁹ USD), Heilongjiang (5.810 × 10⁹ USD), and Qinghai (5.500 × 10⁹ USD). 2) Waste treatment and climate regulation services contributed to 26.29% and 24.74% respectively, of the total ecosystem service value of the marsh wetlands. Hydrological regulation and waste treatment contributed to 41.39% and 32.75%, respectively, of the total ecosystem service value of the lake wetlands. 3) The total ecological service value of the lake and marsh wetlands was 54.64% of the total service value of natural grassland ecosystems and 30.34% of the total service value of forests ecosystems in China.