Identifying the Impact of Landscape Pattern on Ecosystem Services in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River Urban Agglomerations, China.

Luwen Liu,Xinyue Ye,Xingrong Chen,Wanxu Chen

doi:10.3390/ijerph17145063

Abstract

Clarifying the impact mechanisms of landscape patterns on ecosystem services is highly important for effective ecosystem protection, policymaking, and landscape planning. However, previous literature lacks knowledge about the impact mechanisms of landscape patterns on ecosystem services from a spatial perspective. Thus, this study measured landscape patterns and the ecosystem services value (ESV) using a series of landscape pattern metrics and an improved benefit transfer method based on land-use data from 2015. It explores the impact mechanisms of the landscape pattern metrics on the ESV using the ordinary least-squares method and spatial regression models in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River Urban Agglomerations (MRYRUA), China. We found that forestland was the main landscape type in the MRYRUA, followed by cultivated land, and the fragmentation degree of cultivated land was significantly higher than that of forestland. The findings demonstrate that landscape pattern metrics had a significant impact on ecosystem services, but could vary greatly. Moreover, ecosystem services in the MRYRUA exhibited significant spatial spillover effects and cross-regional collaborative governance was an effective means of landscape planning. This paper acts as a scientific reference and effective guidance for landscape planning and regional ecosystem conservation in MRYRUA and other similarly fast-growing urban agglomerations.

Highlights

Land-use/land-cover change (LULCC), an important component and determinant of global environmental change, is the main manifestation of landscape pattern changes in the earth’s surface system [1,2]
Using Equations (1) and (2), the ecosystem services value (ESV) supply capacity of the MRYRUA was measured for 2015; the ESV provided by the ecosystems in the MRYRUA in 2015 was RMB 2770.351 billion
The increase in the Shannon diversity index could promote the improvement of the average ESV, average regulation services, and average cultural services, while the increase of the Shannon diversity index could lead to the degradation of the supply and support services in the MRYRUA

Summary

Introduction

Land-use/land-cover change (LULCC), an important component and determinant of global environmental change, is the main manifestation of landscape pattern changes in the earth’s surface system [1,2]. The worldwide population explosion and rapid advancement of urbanization and industrialization have exacerbated the evolution of landscape patterns and are causing severe interference to the global ecosystem [3,4,5]. Identifying the impact of landscape patterns on ecosystem services is highly significant for ecosystem protection policy-making and landscape planning, especially in fast-growing urban agglomerations in developing countries. The development of new urbanization in China is entering an important stage, with urban agglomerations as the main form [6]. The rapid urbanization in the urban agglomerations has accelerated the evolution of landscape patterns, Int. J. Public Health 2020, 17, 5063; doi:10.3390/ijerph17145063 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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Conclusion