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Context Human demands for ecosystem services (ES) have tremendously changed the landscape and led to degradation of ecosystems and associated services. The resolving of current eco-environmental problems calls for better understanding of the spatially explicit ES interactions to guide targeted landuse policy-making. Objectives We propose a framework to map ES in continuous time-series, based on which we further quantify interactions among multiple ES. Methods The supply of three key ES-soil conservation (SC), net primary production (NPP) and water yield (WY)-were quantified and mapped at fineresolution from 2000 to 2013 using easily-accessible spatial data. Pairwise ES interactions were quantified using a spatio-temporal statistical method. Results Spatio-temporal analyses of ES dynamics illustrated that the supply of the three ES increased over the past 14 years in northern Shaanxi, where land cover dramatically changed owing to the wide-range ecological restoration projects. Our results also revealed that ES interactions varied across locations due to landscape heterogeneity and climate difference. In the arid and semi-arid area, synergies among ES (e.g., SC vs. WY) tended to dominate in grassland, while in artificial lands ES were prone to show tradeoffs. In the semi-humid area, pairwise ES (e.g., NPP vs. WY) in woodland tended to present synergies. Conclusions The spatio-temporal variation of ES and their interactions resulted from coupling effect of human-induced climate and land-use change. In the long-term, spatially explicit quantification of ES Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (

Spatial-explicitly mapping of the hotspots and coldspots is a vital link in the priority setting for ecosystem services (ES) conservation. However, little research has identified and tested the compactness and efficiency of their ES hotspots and coldspots, which may weaken the effectiveness of ecological conservation. In this study, based on the RUSLE model and Getis-Ord Gi * statistics, we quantified the variation of annual soil conservation services (SC) and identified the statistically significant hotspots and coldspots in Shaanxi Province of China from 2000 to 2013. The results indicate that, 1) areas with high SC presented a significantly increasing trend as well, while areas with low SC only changed slightly; 2) SC hotspots and coldspots showed an obvious spatial differentiation-the hotspots were mainly spatially aggregated in southern Shaanxi, while the coldspots were mainly distributed in the Guanzhong Basin and Sand-windy Plateau; and 3) the identified hotspots had the highest capacity of providing SC, with 29.6% of the total area providing 59.7% of the total service. In contrast, the coldspots occupied 46.3% of the total area, but only provided 17.2% of the total SC. In addition to conserving single ES, the Getis-Ord Gi * statistics method can also help identify multi-functional priority areas for conserving multiple ES and biodiversity.

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Synthetic biomass-templated cement-supported CaO-based sorbents were produced by granulation process for high-temperature post-combustion CO 2 capture. Commercial flour was used as the biomass and served as a templating agent. The investigation of porosity showed that the pellets with biomass or cement resulted in enhancement of porosity. Four types of sorbents containing varying proportions of biomass and cement were subject to 20 cycles in a TGA under different calcination conditions. After first series of tests calcined at 850°C in 100% N 2 , all composite sorbents clearly exhibited higher CO 2 capture activity compared to untreated limestone with exception of sorbents doped by seawater. The biomass-templated cement-supported pellets exhibited the highest CO 2 capture level of 46.5% relative to 20.8% for raw limestone after 20 cycles. However, the observed enhancement in performance was substantially reduced under 950°C calcination condition. Considering the fact that both sorbents supported by cement exhibited relatively high conversion with a maximum value of 19.5%, cement promoted sorbents appear to be better at resisting of harsh calcination conditions. Although flour as biomass-templated material generated significantly enhancement in CO 2 capture capacity, further exploration must be carried out to find the way of maintaining outstanding performance for CaO-based sorbents under severe reaction conditions.