Evaluation and analysis of ecosystem service value based on land use/cover change in Dongting Lake wetland

Abstract

Wetland vegetation has experienced significant loss and degradation over the last few decades. Although volumes of studies involve wetlands, limited attention has been paid to the long-term changes and ecological values of inland lake wetlands in China. In this paper, land use/cover data of Dongting Lake wetland from 1995 to 2020 was generated based on Google Earth engine using Stacking algorithm. Subsequently, the spatial and temporal variation of wetland types was explored using dynamic analysis and correlation indices of land change. The main factors influencing the distribution of wetland vegetation were identified by Geodetector. Finally, the degree of impact of wetland changes on ecosystem service value was quantified based on the equivalence factor method. The results show that, in the past 25 years, wetland land use types had switched with each other more frequently, and a total of 294.94 km2 of wetland area had been lost, mainly due to the shrinkage of water, reeds and sedge. The main factors affecting wetland distribution are population density, GDP, elevation and sunshine duration, and the interaction of the drivers is mostly linearly enhanced with no weakening effect. In addition, the ecosystem service value of wetlands showed a trend of first decreasing and then increasing, with a total loss of ¥87,000.99 million in wetland ESV. The results of the study can provide basic information and data for the preliminary work of planning and design, and demonstrate the importance of ecosystems in different regions. Based on the assessment results, it can provide an important basis for the construction of ecological security patterns and policy formulation for ecological civilization construction.