| Abstract: | As the major component of terrestrial ecosystems, forests play an irreplaceable role in providing ecosystem services and products (e.g. biodiversity, carbon sequestration, water yield and timber). Spatially quantifying ecosystem services and interactions will shed light on sustainable forest management. Main forest ecosystem services including carbon storage, water yield, soil retention and wood volume in the Ganjiang River Basin (GRB) were evaluated and mapped through the integrated use of InVEST3.1.0, CASA modeling and ArcGIS10.2, and relationships between forest ecosystem services and natural or social-economic factors were quantified and discussed based on ArcGIS10.2 and SPSS19.0. Results showed that the spatial pattern of the four ecosystem services is heterogeneous. Forests dominated by broad-leaved forest and bamboo forest in mountainous regions around the GRB provided the largest carbon storage and wood volume services, while forests dominated by Masson pine plantations or Chinese fir plantations in the northeast provided the largest water yield service. The spatial pattern of the soil retention service is more discrete than others, and forests in the southwestern regions showed larger soil erosion modulus than in the northeastern regions. Ecosystem services are closely related to the environmental process and human activities. With altitude or slope increases, the carbon storage and wood volume of forests increased and water yield depth and soil retention decreased. When the regional total population decreased or GDP per capita increased, carbon storage and wood volume increased. Further research into the interactions between environmental factors and ecosystem services is needed in order to understand environmental constraints when dealing with ecological problems. |
