Qualifying Land Use and Land Cover Dynamics and Their Impacts on Ecosystem Service in Central Himalaya Transboundary Landscape Based on Google Earth Engine

Changjun Gu,Bohao Cui,Linshan Liu,Yili Zhang,Shicheng Li,Mohan Kumar Rai,Lanhui Li,Binghua Zhang

doi:10.3390/land10020173

Abstract

Land use and land cover (LULC) changes are regarded as one of the key drivers of ecosystem services degradation, especially in mountain regions where they may provide various ecosystem services to local livelihoods and surrounding areas. Additionally, ecosystems and habitats extend across political boundaries, causing more difficulties for ecosystem conservation. LULC in the Kailash Sacred Landscape (KSL) has undergone obvious changes over the past four decades; however, the spatiotemporal changes of the LULC across the whole of the KSL are still unclear, as well as the effects of LULC changes on ecosystem service values (ESVs). Thus, in this study we analyzed LULC changes across the whole of the KSL between 2000 and 2015 using Google Earth Engine (GEE) and quantified their impacts on ESVs. The greatest loss in LULC was found in forest cover, which decreased from 5443.20 km2 in 2000 to 5003.37 km2 in 2015 and which mainly occurred in KSL-Nepal. Meanwhile, the largest growth was observed in grassland (increased by 548.46 km2), followed by cropland (increased by 346.90 km2), both of which mainly occurred in KSL-Nepal. Further analysis showed that the expansions of cropland were the major drivers of the forest cover change in the KSL. Furthermore, the conversion of cropland to shrub land indicated that farmland abandonment existed in the KSL during the study period. The observed forest degradation directly influenced the ESV changes in the KSL. The total ESVs in the KSL decreased from 36.53 × 108 USD y−1 in 2000 to 35.35 × 108 USD y−1 in 2015. Meanwhile, the ESVs of the forestry areas decreased by 1.34 × 108 USD y−1. This shows that the decrease of ESVs in forestry was the primary cause to the loss of total ESVs and also of the high elasticity. Our findings show that even small changes to the LULC, especially in forestry areas, are noteworthy as they could induce a strong ESV response.

Highlights

Ecosystem services can be defined as the benefits that humans gain from ecological processes that contribute to human well-being [1,2,3,4]
We extended an Land use and land cover (LULC) study to the entire Kailash Sacred Landscape (KSL) and further assessed the changes in ecosystem service values (ESVs) between 2000 and 2015
The KSL experienced significant LULC changes: forest and shrub land decreased by 439.82km2 and 389.61km2, respectively, whereas grassland and cropland increased by 548.46km2 and 346.90km2, respectively

Summary

Introduction

Ecosystem services can be defined as the benefits that humans gain from ecological processes that contribute to human well-being [1,2,3,4]. Global ecosystem services have been altered by human activities over the past few centuries [5]. According to Costanza et al [9], 60% of worldwide ecosystem services have degraded over the past several decades. Land use and land cover (LULC) changes, mainly driven by human activities [10], are considered to be one of the greatest and most immediate threats affecting ecosystem services [11,12]. Mountain ecosystems are rich sources of biodiversity [17] and host high plant endemism [18]. They provide diverse ecosystem services [19]. Mountain regions are fragile areas that are sensitive to external forces [20]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion