Response of ecosystem services to impervious surface changes and their scaling effects in Loess Plateau ecological Screen, China

Abstract

The complexity and fragility of the Yellow River Basin ecosystem limits its economic growth and sustainable social development as a strategic planning area for development in western China. The Chinese government has established the Loess Plateau Ecological Screen (LPES) in the region to eliminate or mitigate the negative ecological impacts of human activities represented by the expansion of impervious surfaces (IS) through active ecological conservation and restoration. However, there are few studies that quantify the effects of impervious surfaces on ecosystem services (ES). To fill this gap, this study takes the LPES in China as an example and explores the response of ES to IS changes and its scale effect from 2000 to 2020. Based on remote sensing, meteorological, soil, hydrological, social, and economic data using GIS spatial analysis techniques. The results show that: From 2000 to 2020, the urbanization of the LPES developed rapidly, and the IS increased rapidly. The increase in IS affected the supply of ES, which decreased with the increase in IS growth rate, and this phenomenon had a scale effect. Overall, except for soil conservation service (SCS) - IS, carbon storage service (C) - IS at the administrative scale, the negative correlation increased with increasing scale, while the opposite was true at the grid scale. There were thresholds for the response of ES to IS, and the thresholds were also influenced by the scale of study. The smaller the scale was, the lower the threshold was. However, there were differences in the ranking of each ES reaching the threshold with increasing IS at the grid-scale and administrative division scale. The ecosystem services composite index (ESCI) was found to be the best indicator for exploring the relationship between IS and ES compared to other single ecosystem services indices, with the largest negative correlation with IS and the least influenced by scale effects. Given the obvious scale effect of IS on ES, this study suggests that the development of ecological management programs at the national level should be macroscopically regulated at the provincial level, with specific measures at smaller grid scales (5 Km × 5 Km) to constrain IS expansion..