Linking landscape structures and ecosystem service value using multivariate regression analysis: a case study of the Chaohu Lake Basin, China

Abstract

Human activities have fragmented habitats around the world. In this case, understanding the links between landscape structures and ecosystem service value (ESV) is important because the provision of ecosystem services could be affected by landscape structural changes. The main objective of this study was to evaluate how the landscape structures affect multiple ESVs. This paper examined the influences of landscape structural changes on ESV by analyzing the changes in land use and landscape metrics in the Chaohu Lake Basin, China. Principal component analysis and multivariate regression were used to determine the relationships between landscape metrics and ESVs, while considering spatial autocorrelation. The results revealed significant differences in the ESV across the study area. Regulating services provided more than 58.8 % of the total ESV of the study area in 2007, followed by supporting, provisioning and cultural services. Patch sizes can significantly affect landscape metrics at the landscape level, and consequently, influence the relationships between landscape metrics and ESV. The fragmentation metrics were critical to the ESVs in the small patches. Moreover, the diversity, density, and connectivity metrics were important to the ESVs in the medium and great patches. In the large patches, the fragmentation, density, area and richness, and connectivity metrics were critical to multiple ESVs. The application of landscape metrics in landscape planning should receive particular attention because of the complexity of the impacts of landscape structural changes on the provision of ecosystem services are complex. These results could advance the understanding of the relationships between landscape structures and ecosystem services and guide landscape planning, management and restoration.