Relationships among different types of ecosystem service in Southwest China

Abstract

Understanding the relationships among different ecosystem services is the basis for optimizing ecological protection strategy and achieving sustainable ecological management. Based on the ecosystem services and their spatial patterns in Southwest China, we analyzed tradeoffs and synergies of five ecosystem regulation services (water retention, soil retention, carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, and water purification) and five provision services (rice production, wheat production, corn production, vegetable production, and fruit production) using statistical analysis, ArcGIS technology and GeoDa software. Further, we identified the win-win areas of ecosystem servi-ces through overlay analysis, and discussing the influence of ecosystem types on win-win pattern. There were synergistic relationships among different types of regulation or provision services in Southwest China, while there were both synergies and trade-offs between regulation and provision services. The high win-win areas of the total ecosystem services in Southwest China were mainly distributed in Qionglai Mountains, Ailao Mountains, Dayao Mountains, as well as Lujiang River and Lancang River basins. The proportion of forest and farmland areas significantly affected all kinds of win-win trend.