Trade-Offs and Synergies in Ecosystem Service within the Three-Rivers Headwater Region, China

Abstract

Abstract:The Three-Rivers Headwaters region (TRHR) is an ecological shelter located in the northeast of the Tibetan Plateau, China, that provides environmental protection and regional sustainable development. This region also provides ecosystem services including water supply and soil conservation and exerts major impacts on both its surroundings, as well as the whole of China. A number of ecological restoration projects have been initiated within the TRHR since 2000, including the creation of a natural reserve. Analyses of trends in land use/land cover (LULC), net primary productivity (NPP), water yield and soil conservation within the TRHR are presented based on regional climate and land use datasets and utilizing the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model in tandem with the double mass curve (DMC) approach. The results of this study reveal a series of correlations between ecosystem services and lead to four distinct conclusions. First, the amount of variation between 2000 and 2012 in each LULC type within the TRHR was small. In particular, grassland substitution occurred in high-altitude areas and increased in central areas. Second, NPP, water yield, soil conservation amount and the volume of exported phosphorus (P) decreased along an east-west gradient with values of 64.44%, 38.81%, 7.37% and −49.98% recorded, respectively, between 2000 and 2012. The ecosystem services of the Yellow River basin to the east of the TRHR generally improved over the study period, while those of the Yangtze River and Lancang River basins where enhanced to a lesser extent, and obvious degradation was observed in some local areas. Third, the ecosystem services provided by forested land were highest, followed by grassland and cultivated land, respectively. Fourth, synergistic relationships were observed within the TRHR between NPP, water yield and soil conservation amount, indicating that increasing NPP simultaneously increased the values for these related factors. Synergistic relationships were also recorded between water yield and the amount of exported P, suggesting that increases in the former cause a reduction in water purity.

Quantifying stakeholder understanding of an ecosystem service trade-off

“…Groot et al 2018). Spatiotemporal simulation models such as InVEST (Han et al 2017), ARIES (ARtificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services; Villa et al 2014), or SWAT (Francesconi et al 2016) are often used to model ecosystem service trade-offs and their coupling to participatory research to help moderate outputs may provide a useful avenue for future research. We consider that this methodology could potentially be incorporated into awareness-raising programmes in catchments as part of a participatory approach to engage stakeholders.…”

Towards Ecological-Economic Integrity in the Jing-Jin-Ji Regional Development in China

“…Driven by the economic priority development policy before 2000, there was a massive increase in built-up areas in association with industrial sprawl, increasing urbanization, and development of rural nonagricultural activities [44,45]. Consequently, between 1990 and 2000, the ESV growth by areal increase in water area was offset by the increased built-up area and decreased cropland and grassland areas.…”

Decision support tools for forest landscape restoration: Current status and future outlook

“…This is because the recovery of ecosystem services during forest restoration can take several decades or longer, so model outputs of potential value or supply can provide a misleading prediction of what will actually be available. Past changes in ecosystem service supply, as well as trade-offs and synergies among different types of services, can be assessed by applying models to input data from different time periods (Han et al 2017). …”