Ecosystem service status and changes of degraded natural reserves – A study from the Changbai Mountain Natural Reserve, China

Abstract

The natural reserves are vital to human well-being, but are also highly sensitive to natural and human-induced disturbances. This paper takes the Changbai Mountain Natural Reserve (CMNR) in Northeastern China as a case to investigate the temporal-spatial variability of ecological capital of natural reserves. The method of Specifications for Assessment of Forest Ecosystem Service in China (LY/T1721–2008) was employed to quantify multiple ecosystem services in the CMNR from 1985 to 2010. Considering the particular requirements of forest ecosystem services and the availability of relevant basic data in the CMNR, this study selected four ecosystem services for 1985, 1997 and 2010 land-use/land-cover conditions: carbon fixation and oxygen release, soil conservation, water conservation and nutrient accumulation. The results show a mix of increases in services (carbon fixation and oxygen release, nutrient accumulation) and decreases in services (water conservation and soil conservation) from 1985 to 2010. Furthermore, we combined quantified and modeled ecosystem services to generate a suite of indices to identify ecosystem services and land-use/land-cover type that need to be targeted for conservation and mitigation. Our assessment can be used by land managers and policy makers in exploring multiple management scenarios and their implications for ecosystem services in natural reserves.