Ecological Restoration Effects And Sustainability Based On Ecosystem Services

Ecological restoration is a very important method for people to achieve sustainability.Ecosystem services,as a concept that connects people and natural ecosystem,can be incorporated deeply into many aspects of ecological restoration projects.This study used the Dashihe mine ecological restoration project in Hebei as a case study,acquired remote sensing data,field records and statistics data and applied methods such as the optimal attributes method,RMSE method,DPSIR framework,analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy evaluation to study the following three main research questions:1)how to use ecosystem services to quantify the socio-ecological benefits of ecological restoration projects;2)what are the synergies and trade-off between the ecosystem services that generated by restoration projects;3)what is the relationship between ecosystem services and the sustainability potential of ecological restoration projects?The research process and main findings are as follows:1)A meta-analysis of 199 worldwide studies on the effects of ecological restoration on ecosystem services and biodiversity were performed.The effects of high-,intermediate-and low-intensity restoration approaches,which determined by the intensity or the degree of human intervention were compared.Results showed that,compare to degraded ecosystems,the ecosystem services and biodiversity improved 31%and 25%,31 and 22%,and 45%and 151%in the projects that used low-,intermediate-and high-intensity approaches,respectively.But compare to reference ecosystems,the ecosystem services and biodiversity only increased 6%and-13%,51%and 6%,22%and 1%in the projects that used low-,intermediate-and high-intensity approaches,respectively.2)An evaluation system that based on core ecosystem services derived ecological values was proposed to assess the socio-ecological benefits of Dashihe restoration project and other small-scale ecological restoration projects.Core ecological values were suggested to be selected according the restoration goals,restoration outcomes and societal demands.The concept of ecosystem service transmission mediums was introduced in the selection process of core ecological values.After applying this effect evaluation system to the Dashihe ecological restoration project,it was found that the core ecosystem services in the Dashishe restoration project include erosion control,water yield,carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation.These four core values were estimated to be over 29.25 million RMB per year.Among which,carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation had the largest shares,each accounts for approximately 67.2%and 30.8%of the total value,respectively.Furthermore,the restoration effects of Dashihe restoration project also exceeded the meta-analysis averages when compared to degraded ecosystems.3)After systematically reviewing 116 relevant studies on the three kinds of optimal ecosystem attributes(spatial configuration,shape and size,structure)that required by five ecosystem services(soil erosion control,air purification,cooling effect,water yield and carbon sequestration),the number of shared optimal attributes was used to study the likelihood of ecosystem service relationship formations.Based on the results of this systematic review,a recommended restoration scenario that can improve the restoration effects of Dashihe project was produced.In addition,four more additional restoration scenarios were created based on the conditions of current restoration plan,reference ecosystem and degraded ecosystems,which were no restoration scenario(i.e.degraded ecosystem),restoration based on reference ecosystem scenario,full restoration based on current plan scenario and full restoration based on reference ecosystem scenario.After comparing the restoration effects of the five different scenarios,it was found that current restoration plan generally outperformed degraded and even reference ecosystems.However,there is still large room for improvement compare to the full restoration and recommended restoration scenarios.The recommended restoration scenario generally produced the best restoration results(improvement from 25.5%to 297.8%)and low trade-off intensity(RMSE=0.14)among restoration effects.But for air purification,full restoration based on reference ecosystem will be the scenario for the purpose of maximizing this service.4)An evaluation system that based on DPSIR framework,AHP and fuzzy evaluation methods was proposed to assess the sustainability potential of Dashihe restoration project and other small-scale ecological restoration projects by using ecosystem service,socio-economic and environmental data.Based on the socio-economic planning data,the sustainability potential of Dashihe restoration project and five different restoration scenarios in 2020 were also predicted.The system firstly selects 20 indicators(6 for Driving forces,5 for Pressures,3 for State,2 for Impacts and 4 for Responses)and determines the their reference values.Then it utilizes the AHP method to obtain the importance weights for each indicator.Lastly,the fuzzy evaluation method was applied to synthesize all indicators and calculate a sustainability score for restoration projects.After applying this sustainability evaluation system to the Dashihe ecological restoration project,it was found that the sustainability potential of Dashihe case study was deemed to range between Intermediate to Fairly High.Many improvements should still be made in habitat size,water pollution level,habitat connectivity,air pollution level and species invasion level to increase the sustainability potential to a higher level.The 2020 prediction results suggested that the sustainability potential of the Dashihe restoration project improved to Fairly High to High.The prediction of different restoration scenarios showed that the full restoration based on reference ecosystem scenario and the recommended restoration scenario rendered the best sustainability potential results,which were High to Very High.