Ecological changes and the tradeoff and synergy of ecosystem services in western China

Abstract

Since the implementation of the Development of Western Regions in 2000, a series of major ecological construction projects have been implemented, leading to a series of changes in the ecological conditions and ecological services of western China. This study calculated the amount of ecosystem services in total in the western region from 2000 to 2019, and analyzed ecological changes and the characteristics of spatio-temporal variations in ecological services. A relevant analysis method was applied to explore the tradeoff and synergy of service. It was found that the area of settlements and wetland ecosystems in the western region increased significantly from 2000 to 2015, whereas grassland showed a downward trend year by year. The vegetation fraction showed a decreasing belt-like distribution from south to north. It showed a fluctuating increase during 2000 to 2019, with inter-annual and large spatial differences. The water conservation service (WCS) had a slight downward trend from 2000 to 2019, and the main decreasing areas were distributed in southeastern Tibet, the western part of the Three Rivers Source region, and the karst rocky desertification area. The soil conservation service (SCS) showed an increasing but fluctuating trend, with the greatest increases observed in the Loess Plateau region, western Sichuan and Yunnan, northwest Tibet, and southeast Tibet. The windbreak and sand fixation service (SFS) showed a downward trend, and the sharp decline was mainly in the central and western parts of Inner Mongolia, Tibet and parts of northern Xinjiang. Ecosystem supply and WCS, and SCS were mainly synergistic, which were found in areas north of the Qinling Mountains-Huaihe River (QM-HR) line, especially in Ningxia and Inner Mongolia. Ecosystem supply was mainly tradeoffs with SFS, and it was found in the agriculture-pastoral transition zone. The synergistic degree of ecosystem services in areas subjected to ecological engineering policy was greater than that in non-engineering areas. Quantitative assessment of ecosystem service changes and their tradeoffs is helpful for scientific ecological management and maximizing ecological benefits.

The Spatiotemporal Evolution and Prediction of Carbon Storage in the Yellow River Basin Based on the Major Function-Oriented Zone Planning

“…Industrialization and urbanization have brought serious problems such as greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution, and land resource destruction, which have threatened the ecological background [1,2]. In particular, fossil-fuel combustion, deforestation, and irrational land use have made the "greenhouse effect" more and more serious, and carbon emission reduction and carbon neutrality have become international hot topics [3,4].…”

“…a repesents NDS, b repesents UES, c repesents EPS;[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] repesents national key development prioritized zone, provincial key development prioritized zone, national development optimized zone, provincial development optimized zone, national major grain pro-ducing zone, provincial major grain producing zone, national key ecological function zone, and provincial key ecological function zone, respectively. 3.4.…”

Coupling Evaluation and Spatial–Temporal Evolution of Land Ecosystem Services and Economic–Social Development in a City Group: The Case Study of the Chengdu–Chongqing City Group

“…The index is higher in the eastern cities and lower in the western cities. The reason for this is that, since 2000, China has proposed a western plan, which has increased support for the western region, and the establishment of various economic zones and high-tech zones within cities has accelerated the process of economic–social development [ 78 ]. However, influenced by the long tradition of unipolar development in Chengdu or Chongqing [ 79 ], there are obvious differences in the level of economic–social development in CCCG, resulting in a growing gap in economic–social development between other second-, third-, and fourth-tier cities in CCCG and the first-tier cities of Chengdu or Chongqing.…”

Spatial Differentiation and Tradeoff–Synergy of Rural Multifunction at the County Scale in Anhui Province in the China’s Traditional Agricultural Areas

“…Spearman correlation coefficient is a non-parametric statistical method that uses the rank size of two variables to perform linear correlation analysis. This method has been applied to ecosystem service tradeoff–synergy research [ 47 , 48 ]. In light of this, the Spearman correlation coefficient method was used to quantitatively analyze the tradeoff–synergy of rural multifunction at the county level.…”