Abstract
Ecosystem services provide important support for the sustainable development of humans; these services are provided by various ecosystems, but they have been severely influenced by anthropogenic activities globally in the past several decades. To respond to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, this study investigated the changes in ecosystem structure and estimated the associated ecosystem services value (ESV) since China’s reform and opening-up policy in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), one of the most developed and populous areas of China. Our results showed that dramatic changes in ecosystem structure occurred in the GBA, characterized by unpresented construction land sprawl (an average of 148 km2/yr) and extensive farmland loss (an average of 111 km2/yr). The change size and rate of ecosystems from 2000 to 2010 was the biggest and fastest, followed by that from 1990 to 2000. The ESV of the study area showed an overall decreasing trend, declining from 464 billion yuan to 346 billion yuan. The ESV supported by forest ecosystems and water body ecosystems made dominant contributions to the total ESV, ranging from 92% to 95%. Strong spatial heterogeneity of the ESV of the GBA might be noted throughout the study period, with lower values in the central region and higher values in the surrounding region. To realize sustainable development in the GBA; this study strongly suggests that local governments, and the public, scientifically use various ecosystems and their services, focusing on vigorously protecting ecosystems with high and important ESVs, such as water body, wetland, forest, and farmland ecosystems.
Highlights
The present study reveals that the ecosystem structure in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) experienced dramatic changes from 1980 to 2018, and the most pronounced changes were construction land expansion and farmland loss, with areas varying from 2607 km2 to 8244 km2 and from
This study showed that the GBA has undergone dramatic changes in ecosystem structure in the past four decades, resulting in significant changes in various ecosystem services, which were mainly caused by the expansion of construction land
The results showed that drastic changes were observed in the ecosystem structure, especially for farmland, with the largest decrease of 4223 km2, and construction land, with the highest increase of 5636 km2
Summary
Ecosystem services include four main classes, namely, provisioning services, supporting services, regulating services, and cultural services, and these services provide important support for the sustainable development of Remote Sens. Natural ecosystems and their functions have been deteriorating under the complex impacts of anthropogenic factors, such as land-use transition, economic development, population growth, urbanization, and industrialization. The study by Estoque and Murayama found that the ecosystem services value (ESV) of Baguio per year showed a substantial decrease of approximately 60%, as a result of dramatic changes in natural ecosystems and rapid population growth [4]. Land-use/land cover changes induced by rapid urbanization have extensively caused substantial losses of ESV in the developed areas of China [5,6]. Wetland loss caused by human activities has severely weakened the associated ecosystem services and has reduced biodiversity [10,11,12]
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