Influences of pedodiversity on ecosystem services in a mountainous area

Abstract

Pedodiversity has an important influence on soil water movement, sediment transport, plant growth, biodiversity maintenance, and many other ecological processes related to ecosystem services. However, the influence of pedodiversity on ecosystem services is still unknown, especially in mountainous areas. In this study, the relationships between the pedodiversity and two essential ecosystem services, soil retention (SR) and water yield (WY) services, were analyzed, and the influences of pedodiversity on the temporal changes in the SR (DSR) and WY (DWY) during 2000 and 2015 were determined. The results showed that pedodiversity was generally positively correlated with the SR, but it was negatively correlated with the WY. This indicates that a higher pedodiversity is favorable to soil and water conservation. Both the SR and WY decreased during the study period. The Shannon index was significantly negatively correlated with the DSR, indicating that pedodiversity was conducive to maintaining the temporal stability of the SR. However, a positive correlation was found between pedodiversity and the DWY, indicating that the higher pedodiversity area exhibited a more significant decreasing trend in the WY. This in turn suggests that pedodiversity helps improve the water retention capacity. The influence of pedodiversity on ecosystem services is mainly a direct effect. However, the influences of the environmental factors had both direct and indirect effects. The results of this quantitative analysis of the influence of pedodiversity on ecosystem services provide evidence that protecting pedodiversity is necessary, and they also provide a new direction for pedodiversity research.