Impacts of the returning farmland to forest (grassland)project on ecosystem services in the Weihe River Basin, China.

Abstract

As an important ecological compensation project initiated in China, the returning farmland to forest (grassland) project plays a key role in maintaining national ecological security. Systematical analysis for the impacts of the returning farmland to forest (grassland) project on ecosystem services would provide reference for consummating ecological compensation system. Taking the Weihe River Basin as an example, we analyzed the spatiotemporal changes of land use and ecosystem services since the implementation of the project based on land use data, meteorological data and other information. The InVEST model and geographically weighted regression were used to investigate the impacts of the project on the changes of ecosystem services, such as water conservation, soil conservation, carbon storage, and habitat quality. The results showed that since the implementation of the project, the coverage rate of forest and grassland had been fluctuating upwards, with an increase of 2704.49 km2 of forest and grassland area. From 2000 to 2018, in the Weihe River Basin all showed a fluctuating upwards trends. Among those services, water conservation and carbon storage had large increases, while habitat quality and soil conservation had small increases. The project had effectively improved ecosystem services in the Weihe River Basin, but the impacting intensity on ecosystem services varied from one geographical unit to another.