Identifying eco-functional zones on the Chinese Loess Plateau using ecosystem service bundles

doi:10.1016/j.regsus.2023.11.005

Abstract

Abstract:

Optimizing the function of ecosystem services (ESs) is vital for implementing regional ecological management strategies. In this study, we used multi-source data and integrated modelling methods to assess the spatiotemporal variations in eight typical ESs on the Chinese Loess Plateau from 2000 to 2015, including grain production, raw material provision, water conservation, carbon storage service, soil conservation, oxygen production, recreation, and net primary productivity (NPP) services. Then, we divided the ecosystem service bundles (ESBs) according to relationships among the eight ESs, obtaining four types of eco-functional areas at the county (city or banner or district) level based on the spatial clustering of similarities in different ES types. We also identified and assessed the contributions of influencing factors to these eco-functional areas using principal component analysis (PCA) across spatiotemporal scales. We found that the spatiotemporal variations in different ESs were noticeable, with an overall increase in grain production and soil conservation services, no significant change in carbon storage service, and overall decreases in raw material provision, water conservation, oxygen production, recreation, and NPP services. From 2000 to 2015, the number of significant synergistic ES pairs decreased, while that of significant trade-off pairs increased. To the changes of ESBs in the eco-functional areas, the results indicated that the indirect loss of these ESs from forest and grassland due to urban expansion should be reduced in ecological development area (ESB 2) and multi ecological functional area (ESB 3). Meanwhile, crop planting structures and planting densities should be adjusted to reduce ES trade-offs associated with water conservation service in grain-producing area (ESB 4). Lastly, ESB-based eco-functional zoning can be used to improve ecological restoration management strategies and optimize ecological compensation schemes in ecologically fragile area (ESB 1).

Key words: Ecosystem services, Trade-offs, Synergy, Land use/land cover, Climate change, Principal component analysis (PCA)

WU Fan, LIANG Youjia, LIU Lijun, YIN Zhangcai, HUANG Jiejun. Identifying eco-functional zones on the Chinese Loess Plateau using ecosystem service bundles[J]. Regional Sustainability, 2023, 4(4): 425-440.

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Data	Resolution	Year	Source
Temperature, sunshine duration, and precipitation	Daily	2000-2015	National Meteorological Information Centre (http://data.cma.cn)
Digital elevation model (DEM)	90 m×90 m		Geospatial Data Cloud (https://www.gscloud.cn/)
Potential evapotranspiration (PET)	1 km×1 km, yearly	2000-2015	Harvard Dataverse V1 (https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/0WZCNO)
Annual grain yield	1 km×1 km, yearly	2000-2015	Agricultural Survey Division, National Bureau of Statistics (2000-2015)
Gross domestic product (GDP)	1 km×1 km, yearly	2000-2015	Resources and Environmental Sciences and Data Centre (https://www.resdc.cn/DOI/DOI.aspx?DOIID=33)
Land use/land cover (LULC)	300 m×300 m, yearly	2000-2015	European Space Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative (CCI) (https://www.esa-landcover-cci.org)
Leaf area index (LAI)	30″×30″	2000-2015	Land-Atmosphere Interaction Research Group, Sun Yat-sen University (http://globalchange.bnu.edu.cn/)
Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)	1 km×1 km, monthly	2000-2015	Resources and Environmental Sciences and Data Centre (https://www.resdc.cn/data.aspx?DATAID=257)
Population map	1 km×1 km, yearly	2000-2015	Resources and Environmental Sciences and Data Centre (https://www.resdc.cn/DOI/DOI.aspx?DOIID=32)
Soil data	1 km×1 km		Harmonized World Soil Database V1.2 (https://www.fao.org/soils-portal/data-hub/soil-maps-and-databases/)

ES function	ES indicator	Parameters used in the calculation of ES value
Provisioning services	Grain production	County grain yield and NDVI
Provisioning services	Raw material provision	Net primary productivity (NPP) and standard coal price
Regulating services	Water conservation	Flow velocity coefficient, topographic index, soil saturated hydraulic conductivity, and LULC
	Carbon storage	Carbon density and LULC
	Soil conservation	Rainfall erosivity, soil erodibility, length-slope factor, vegetation cover, and retention factors
	Oxygen production	NPP
Cultural service	Recreation	Grain production, vegetation coverage, and NPP
Supporting service	NPP	Photosynthetically available radiation and light energy utilization rate

Factor	Factor loading
Factor	Principal component 1 (PC1)	Principal component 2 (PC2)	Principal component 3 (PC3)
DEM	0.895	0.095	-0.164
Temperature	-0.893	0.128	0.204
Proportion of cropland	-0.717	0.299	0.038
Proportion of ecological land	0.690	-0.602	-0.047
Slope	0.596	0.686	-0.075
Sunshine duration	0.529	-0.754	-0.140
Precipitation	-0.295	0.838	0.100
Population	-0.256	0.142	0.912
GDP	-0.132	0.032	0.961
Potential evapotranspiration	0.032	0.941	-0.008
Proportion of urban land	-0.002	-0.037	0.958

Factor category	Factor	Eigenvalue			Linear combination coefficient	Weight (%)
Factor category	Factor	PC1	PC2	PC3	Linear combination coefficient	Weight (%)
Topography	DEM	0.417	0.059	0.115	0.249	9.9
Topography	Slope	0.278	0.423	0.053	0.270	10.7
Climate	Sunshine duration	0.247	0.464	0.099	0.277	11.0
	Temperature	0.416	0.079	0.144	0.261	10.3
	Potential evapotranspiration	0.015	0.580	0.006	0.174	6.9
	Precipitation	0.138	0.516	0.070	0.231	9.2
Land use	Proportion of cropland	0.334	0.184	0.027	0.224	8.9
	Proportion of ecological land	0.322	0.371	0.033	0.273	10.8
	Proportion of urban land	0.001	0.023	0.675	0.154	6.1
Socioeconomic factor	GDP	0.062	0.020	0.677	0.183	7.3
Socioeconomic factor	Population	0.119	0.087	0.642	0.224	8.9