| Ecosystem services and human well-being are two fundamental aspects of sustainable development,and how to analyze the relationship between the two is a hot and difficult topic in ecological research.Previous studies on the relationship between ecosystem services and human well-being have mostly focused on qualitative analysis.Although there are few quantitative studies that can explain the numerical correlation,the explanation of the mechanism of their interaction is slightly inferior,and there is a lack of research that combines livelihoods,ecosystem services,and human well-being.The livelihoods of households reflects the ways and means in which farmers and herdsmen use ecosystem services to obtain well-being,and is a key link connecting ecosystem services and human well-being.Taking farmers and herdsmen’s livelihoods as the entry point,this paper analyzes the correlation mechanism between farmers’ livelihoods,ecosystem services,and human well-being,providing a new perspective for elucidating the interrelationship between ecosystem services and human well-being.In the study,we selected Darhan Muminggan United Banner,a desert steppe area in Inner Mongolia as the study area,and selected 251 households as samples by stratified random sampling method.Based on the data of herdsmen questionnaire survey and field vegetation survey,supported by remote sensing and geographic information technology,and combined with the conceptual framework of sustainable livelihood,this study analyzed the livelihood characteristics of households and their influencing factors;Using the yield estimation model,RUSLE model,and In VEST model to evaluate six ecosystem services such as grass yield,firewood supply,stocking rate,water yield,soil conservation,and carbon storage at the household scale;And evaluated the human well-being and its 5 elements such as basic material needs,health,safety,social relationship and freedom of choice and action from both objective and subjective dimensions;On this basis,the path analysis model was used to quantitatively analyze the correlation mechanism between households’ livelihoods,ecosystem services and human well-being.The main results of this study are as follows:(1)The shortage of livelihood capitals were natural capital and financial capital.Livelihood strategies can be divided into 5 categories based on livelihood capitals,and there were significant differences in the weak links of different livelihood strategy types for pastoral households.The income source of pastoral households was single,mainly from government subsidies and animal husbandry income,while other income only served as a supplement.Seven factors,including the cultural level and age of the head of households,were the influencing factors for the livelihood strategies of pastoral households.(2)The study evaluated the distribution characteristics of ecosystem services at the households scale,strengthened the connection with the stakeholders,and made up for the lack of ecosystem services evaluating at small scale of previous research.Ecosystem services like grass yield,soil conservation,water yield and carbon storage showed an increasing trend from north to south,and firewood supply and stocking rate showed great spatial heterogeneity.Household scales’ ecosystem services were divided into three types of ecosystem service clusters.The rich type of ecosystem services were distributed in the southern region,the fragile type of ecosystem services were distributed in the northern region,and the medium type of ecosystem services were distributed throughout the region.There was a synergistic relationship between 8 pairs of ecosystem services,including water production and soil conservation,grass production and soil conservation,while there was a trade-off relationship between water production and firewood supply,grass production and firewood supply.(3)The study evaluated the well-being of pastoral households in the Inner Mongolia desert steppe from both objective and subjective dimensions.The objective well-being of pastoral households was relatively low,with higher health and safety well-being,and lower basic material needs and social relationship well-being.Among the five different types of objective well-being pastoral households,38.25% of them had lower health and safety well-being,21.91% had lower basic material needs,social relationships,freedom of choice and action well-being,and 10.76% had lower health and social relationship well-being.The subjective well-being of pastoral households was relatively high,with high satisfaction with safety and social relations,and low satisfaction with basic material needs,freedom of choice and action.Among the five different types of subjective well-being pastoral households,13.55% of them had low satisfaction with safety and social relations,12.75% of them had low satisfaction with basic material needs,freedom of choice and action,and 10.76% of them had low satisfaction with health.(4)The study used path analysis model to quantitatively analyzed the correlation mechanism between livelihoods,ecosystem services and well-being of households from three levels: overall,types,and indicators.Overall,ecosystem services had a significant positive effect on the objective well-being of households.The livelihood capital of households had a significant negative effect on ecosystem services and a significant positive effect on their objective well-being.At the level of type,regulatory services had a significant positive effect on objective well-being.The natural capital in livelihood capitals had a significant negative effect on both supply and regulation services.Natural capital,Physical capital,human capital and social capital all had significant positive effects on objective well-being.At the level of indicator,specific analysis were conducted on the impacts of ecosystem service indicators on objective and subjective well-being factors,the impacts of livelihood capital indicators on objective and subjective well-being factors,the impacts of livelihood capital indicators on ecosystem service indicators,and the bidirectional impact of livelihood capital indicators on ecosystem service indicators and well-being factors.As a key link connecting grassland ecosystem services and the well-being of pastoral households,livelihood capitals had a significant impact on both ecosystem services and the well-being of pastoral households,providing a new research angle for analyzing the interrelationship between ecosystem services and human well-being.The study proposed three suggestions for the sustainable development of ecology and the well-being of pastoral households in Inner Mongolia desert steppe:(1)implementing differentiated and multi-channel compensation policies based on the weak links of pastoral households’ livelihoods;(2)adjust the distribution standards of compensation funds based on the population of pastoral households;(3)accelerate the transformation from traditional animal husbandry to modern animal husbandry. |
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