Regional Ecosystem Services Assessment And Research On Trade-Offs/Synergistic Relationships

Ecosystem services are the environmental conditions and utilities that ecosystems create and sustain for human survival and development,for all the benefits that humans receive directly or indirectly from ecosystems.Driven by a combination of factors,close and complex trade-off/synergistic relationships arise among ecosystem services.A comprehensive understanding of the relationships between ecosystem services and the sustainable provisioning of ecosystem services is of great significance to the construction of regional ecological civilization and the sustainable development of economy and society.In recent years,against the background of rapid urbanization,industrialization and agricultural modernization,the continuous expansion of land for construction in the affected areas of the lower Yellow River has led to tension between people and land,and the uncoordinated distribution of resources has led to a shortage of resources in some areas,coupled with the increasingly prominent problems of land resource degradation,serious water pollution,increased soil erosion and reduced biodiversity,which have seriously affected the ecological security and ecosystem health of the region.Therefore,strengthening the scientific assessment of typical ecosystem services in the affected areas of the lower Yellow River and clarifying the complex tradeoff/synergistic relationships among multiple services were of strategic importance for improving the ecological benefits of the region and achieving high-quality regional development.This study took the affected areas of the lower Yellow River as an example,and used multiple sources of data to assess and measure typical ecosystem services(Food production,Water yield,Soil conservation,Carbon storage,and Habitat quality)and analyzed their spatial and temporal variability characteristics.Using random forest regression models to explore the driving mechanisms affecting the spatial differentiation of ecosystem services,and combined correlation analysis and spatial superposition analysis to quantify the trade-offs and synergistic relationships between different services,and the cold(hot)spot areas and bundles of multiple ecosystem services were identified and classified by superposition analysis and SOFM methods respectively,and from the perspective of ecosystem service bundles,regional development proposals for reducing inter-service trade-offs and achieving inter-service synergies in the affected areas of the lower Yellow River were proposed.The main conclusions were as follows.(1)The spatial distribution of the different ecosystem services in the affected areas of the lower Yellow River varies significantly,and most of the services tend to decrease in level.In terms of temporal changes,food production showed a significant increase,water yield showed a gradual decrease,soil conservation showed an increase and then a decrease,and carbon storage and habitat quality both showed a gradual and slight decrease.In terms of spatial distribution,food production was mainly high in the central part and low in the east and west;the core areas of soil conservation,carbon storage and habitat quality were consistent in spatial distribution,mainly concentrated in the mountainous hilly areas of south central Lu,the south Taihang mountainous areas of north Henan and the Song mountainous hilly areas of west Henan.In terms of the level of ecosystem services per unit area of different land use types,food production per unit area was highest in the farmland.Soil conservation,carbon storage,and habitat quality per unit area were highest in forestland,and water yield per unit area was highest in built-up land.Land use type was the most significant driver of services such as food production,carbon storage and habitat quality.Climatic factors were the most significant drivers of services for water yield.Soil conservation services showed significant spatial differentiation due to a variety of factors such as climate,topography and land use type.(2)The trade-offs and synergistic relationships between different services in the affected areas of the lower Yellow River were not consistent across spatial scales and temporal variations.The results of the correlation analysis showed that the results of the correlation analysis based on random points and county scales were generally consistent,but there were still significant differences in the significance between different services.Spatialization of the trade-offs and synergies between different services in each county could complement the results of the regional correlation analysis.From the results of the spatial superposition analysis,the results of the integrated interactions between ecosystem services in the affected areas of the lower Yellow River were dominated by low trade-off relationships,followed by areas dominated by high trade-off relationships,followed by areas dominated by low synergistic relationships,with areas dominated by high synergistic relationships accounting for the least proportion of the area.(3)Ecosystem services in the affected areas of the lower Yellow River had obvious spatial clustering characteristics.From the results of the cold and hot spot analysis,the hot spot areas in the affected areas of the lower Yellow River were mainly concentrated in the mountainous hilly areas of south central Lu in the eastern part of the study area,the mountainous hilly areas of south Taihang in northwest Henan and the mountainous hilly areas of Song Shan in west Henan in the western part of the study area,while the cold spot areas were mainly concentrated in the plain areas in the northwest and northeast of the study area.From the results of the service bundles,the food production bundles in the affected areas of the lower Yellow River were mainly concentrated in the plains of the study area,the water and food coordination bundles were influenced by water yield services and their distribution varies significantly from year to year,the ecological coordination bundles were mainly concentrated in the mountainous hilly areas in the eastern and western parts of the study area,and the urban and rural development bundles were mainly distributed in the urban areas of the major cities and some counties in the northeastern part of the study area.