Spatiotemporal Changes in Land Use and Ecosystem Service Values Under the Influence of Glacier Retreat in a High-Andean Environment

Abstract

Glaciers supply multiple ecosystem services that are threatened by climate change. The retreat and disappearance of tropical glaciers is an important dynamic that affects ecosystems and local communities. The knowledge of the impacts of this land-change dynamics on the supply of ecosystem services is lacking. In that sense, the assessment developed can provide evidence about the costs and benefits of promoting conservation and human well-being at the same time. Then, the main objective of this research is to determine the spatial–temporal changes and their effects on the economic value of ecosystem services in a glacial retreat environment. We selected the Marangani district as a study area. It comprises the La Raya Mountain range in the Andes. The assessments were carried out across two scales of observation: the municipality and the watershed level. Here, we process spectral information from Landsat Sensor using the Random Forest algorithm in the Google Earth Engine platform to classify 10 biomes. It was carried out over more than 30 years (from 1986 to 2019). After that, ecosystem services provided by the biomes were valued using the transfer method. This research shows that at the municipality level, almost all the LULCs faced variations over time, and the glaciers had the highest change, accumulating a ratio of –85.51%, whereas at the watershed level, a higher tendency of land changes is observed in the areas without glaciers, and those with glacier areas count on permanent larger bofedales. At the municipality level, the economic value of ecosystems shows that bofedales and water surfaces are the LULCs that supply the highest ecosystem services (∼33,000 USD ha−1 yr−1 each). In addition, without the inflation adjustment, the total ESV is on a trajectory of losing ESV (–$9.67 × 106). In the watersheds with glacier retreat, significant quantity of bofedales and natural grasslands controls the fluctuations of ESV. These high-mountain watersheds play an essential role in providing benefits and value to local communities. In general, the municipality level indicates the trajectory of changes in the district, whereas the watershed scale shows the urgency for implementing spatial conservation actions.

Study on the Coupling and Coordination Relationship between Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP) and Regional Economic System: A Case Study of Jiangxi Province

“…Many Chinese experts and scholars have carried out research on different ecosystem types or different regional scales on this basis [9,[12][13][14][15][16]. In addition, Ethiopia [17], Kenya [18], Peru [19], Bangladesh [20], Australia [21], the United Kingdom [22], the United States [23,24], and other countries are also conducting research on the value of ecosystem services. At the same time, there are also evaluation studies on ecological compensation, ecological benefits, and ecological protection effects based on the accounting of the GEP [25][26][27].…”

Analysis of the Spatiotemporal Evolution and Factors Influencing Ecological Land in Northwest Yunnan from the Perspective of Leading the Construction of a National Ecological Civilization

“…A center-of-gravity model offers a more encompassing portrayal of the spatial configuration of elements within a region. It adeptly captures the spatial concentration and migration witnessed in regional development, thereby illustrating the dynamic shifts in the center of gravity of these elements [51].…”