Ecosystem services in the Yangtze River Basin and their trade-offs/synergies relationships in response to climate change

Abstract

Abstract The Yangtze River Basin is an important ecological security barrier with significant economic status, but it is greatly affected by climate change. Therefore, we investigated the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of annual ecosystem service (net primary production (NPP), water conservation and soil retention), their interrelationships and responses to climate change in the Yangtze River Basin from 2001 to 2020. The annual NPP, soil retention and water conservation were 511 gC m−2, 632 t and 272 mm, respectively and they all increased over 2001–2020 though this varied in both time and space. The capacities of soil retention and water conservation did not increase, and even gradually decreased for first 10 years (2001–2010), most likely due to the subsequent effects of the catastrophic flood of Yangtze River occurred in 1998. There are tradeoffs between NPP and soil retention/water conservation in the west Sichaun Province, which is different from the rest of the Yangtze River Basin where synergistic relationships dominate. Precipitation is the dominate climatic influencing factor on the ecosystem service trends found in the Yangtze River Basin. The concept of ecosystem services is being incorporated into decision-making and management, this study is critical to guide regional effective resource utilization, ecosystem management decisions and feasible policies.