Assessment And Adaptive Management Of Ecosystem Services In Qilian Mountain National Nature Reserve

Ecosystems provide a wide range of direct and indirect services to humans,including regulating services,supporting services,provisioning services and cultural services,which are essential for sustainable development and human well-being.However,in the context of global change and the continuous impact of human activities,the degradation of global ecosystems has led to the continuous decline of ecosystem service functions,threatening human survival.The quantitative assessment of ecosystem services can recognize the contribution of natural ecosystems to social systems,reflect the effectiveness of regional ecological protection,the coordination relationship between development and protection,human-land coupling and regional sustainable development,so as to provide scientific basis for natural resource management and human survival and development.Therefore,China has gradually incorporated the assessment of ecosystem services into the national ecological civilization development strategy,proposed to incorporate resource consumption and ecological benefits into the economic and social development assessment system,and further established a target system that reflects the requirements of ecological civilization.However,in mountain ecosystems,the contradiction between ecosystem services and the development of people’s well-being still exists,which increases the difficulty of natural resource management to a certain extent.How to quantitatively assess the ecosystem services of Qilian Mountain National Nature Reserve,from natural ecosystem production,to intermediate transmission,and finally to the human society benefits?This study takes the lead in applying the Gross Ecosystem Product(GEP)accounting method to evaluate ten ecosystem service evaluation indicators of Qilian Mountain National Nature Reserve.Among them,there are three material production(agricultural products,animal husbandry products and forestry products),six regulating services(water conservation,flood adjustment and storage,soil conservation,wind and sand fixation,carbon sequestration services and pollination services),and one cultural service(leisure tourism).On the basis,we further apply spillover effect and remote coupling process to describe the dynamic process of ecosystem services from natural ecosystem to human social system at different scales,and explain the role of ecosystem services.Finally,the adaptive management path of ecosystem in Qilian Mountain National Nature Reserve is proposed to effectively promote the research on the value realization of ecosystem services.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)Based on the construction of a set of ecosystem service evaluation indicators and parameter systems that conform to the actual situation of Qilian Mountain National Nature Reserve,this study has quantitatively evaluated relatively comprehensively and completely evaluation the functions and values of key ecosystem services such as water conservation,flood adjustment and storage,and soil conservation,and has analyzed the spatial and temporal differentiation characteristics of each ecosystem service on the time scale of nearly 40 years.From the perspective of time change,the ecosystem service capacity of Qilian Mountain National Nature Reserve showed an overall increase trend from 1980 to 2020.The growth rate of material production service is 2800 t/a;the total amount of water conservation increased by 2.4×10~8m~3 overall,soil conservation increased by about 1543.4×10~4t overall,flood adjustment and storage increased by about 1.6×10~8m~3,carbon sequestration increased by about 3.42×10~6t,wind and sand fixation increased by about 1.58×10~6t,and pollination services increased by about 8.1×10~4 t.The above results show that the quality of the ecological environment in the Qilian Mountain National Nature Reserve has continued to improve and the ecosystem service capacity has further improved.(2)The ecosystem service value of Qilian Mountain National Nature Reserve is about 117.313 billion yuan/a,of which the contribution of soil conservation is 47.26%,the contribution of water conservation is 17.52%,the contribution of carbon fixation service is 15.62%,the contribution of flood adjustment and storage is 10.16%,followed by the contribution of tourism service is 4.63%,the contribution of material production is 4.1%,the contribution of wind and sand fixation is 0.65%,and the contribution of pollination service is 0.05%.From the perspective of different ecosystem types,forest land and grassland are the most important ecosystem types in the study area,providing 48.51%and 39.22%services for the region respectively,while cultivated land,wetland and other ecosystems contribute 5.72%,5.15%and 1.4%services respectively.From the perspective of time scale,the ecosystem service function and value in the study area showed an overall increasing trend from 1980 to 2020.(3)Material production,carbon fixation services,pollination services,tourism and leisure services are the main drivers of the value realization of ecosystem services in the study area.In particular,the simulation and evaluation of pollination services were carried out in Qilian Mountain National Nature Reserve for the first time.The results can predict the impact of relevant policies on pollination services and farmers’income,so as to optimize planting strategies and government compensation plans,promote biodiversity conservation investment,and effectively promote regional welfare development and rural revitalization.There are significant spillover effects and remote coupling processes in ecosystem services of Qilian Mountain National Nature Reserve.At the provincial level,there are spillover effects in eight types of ecosystem services such as soil conservation and carbon sequestration.The Hexi Corridor(Jiuquan,Jiayuguan,Zhangye,Jinchang and Wuwei)is the main beneficiary area,with a direct beneficiary population of about 4.906 million.On the national scale,with the increase of distance,the spillover effect of ecosystem services has gradually weakened.There are spillover effects in six types of ecosystem services.The Yellow River Basin is the main beneficiary area,with a direct beneficiary population of about 107 million.On a global scale,three types of ecosystem services have spillover effects.The beneficiaries of carbon sequestration services and tourism services are countries around the world,and the beneficiaries of material production services are the countries along the Belt and Road.The spillover effect of ecosystem services is the foundation for implementing ecological compensation in ecological spillover areas.Therefore,it is recommended to implement horizontal ecological compensation in provincial basins at the provincial level,inter provincial horizontal ecological compensation at the national level,and explore the implementation of international horizontal ecological compensation at the global level.(4)This study proposed three development paths for the ecosystem adaptive management of Qilian Mountain National Nature Reserve,which are,the key ecosystem recovery and development path,the Payment for ecosystem services(PES)path and the ecological product value realization path.It is important to adopt different ecological restoration,management and development strategies along the altitude direction.Areas below 2800m should focus on economic development,but it is necessary to change the traditional farming and animal husbandry methods,organically combine ecological agriculture,animal husbandry and tourism,and develop in a coordinated way to fully develop the ecological effects of volatile material supply services,pollination services and tourism services,actively develop regional characteristic ecological products(promote forest and grass products,promote cultural tourism industry,and develop characteristic agricultural and animal husbandry products).Areas between 2800 and 3400m are the main contribution areas of supplying services,regulation services,support services and cultural services.These areas should mainly focus on ecological protection,adhere to the principle of natural restoration and artificial restoration,and give full play to the service effects of water conservation,soil conservation,carbon sequestration,flood adjustment and storage.Areas between 4300 and 5500m should mainly focus on ecological protection,reduce human activities,and protect the diversity of flagship animals and rare species.In general,this study clarifies the changes and development trends of eight key ecosystem services in Qilian Mountain National Nature Reserve in the past 40 years.The results will minimize the uncertainty of natural factors and human activities,thus achieving the best state of protection and utilization of natural resources,and effectively promoting the steady construction of Qilian Mountain National Park.The results can provide theoretical and scientific basis for government departments at all levels to formulate relevant ecological development policies,maximize the value of ecosystem services into actual economic value,promote the coordinated and sustainable development of ecological economy in Qilian Mountain,and truly apply scientific research results to the land of the motherland.