Experimental research on trade-offs in ecosystem services: The agro-ecosystem functional spectrum

Abstract

Abstract The analytic methods currently widely applied in studying trade-offs of ecosystem services have certain limitations. There is scope to use different methods to better analyse the comprehensive influence of the change in an individual service on that of overall services, and to examine the relationship between total ecosystem services and the structure of services delivered by an ecosystem. This paper develops the concept of an ‘agricultural functional spectrum’ (AFS), applying it to the study of trade-offs in ecosystem services, and uses integrating methods including value assessment, diversity and structure measurement approaches to analyse in detail trade-offs of agro-ecosystem services in the Xi’an metropolitan zone in China, a prime example of a very rapidly urbanising area. The agro-ecosystem services in the study area were dominated by tradeoffs between economic and social functions and ecological services. Large-scale increases to economic and social functions have resulted in a steady decline of supporting and regulating services, uneven development of diverse agro-ecosystem services, and an increased specialisation in the services’ structure. The results indicate that these methods can not only express trade-offs between ecosystem services but also spatially visualise the relations between the structure and diversity of ecosystem services. The concept of the AFS and the associated methods may have significant implications for improving the approaches to studies on trade-offs between ecosystem services.