Abstract
Understanding the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of ecosystem services (ESs) and their drivers in mountainous areas is important for sustainable ecosystem management. However, the effective construction of landscape heterogeneous units (LHUs) to reflect the spatial characteristics of ESs remains to be studied. The southern hill and mountain belt (SHMB) is a typical mountainous region in China, with undulating terrain and obvious spatial heterogeneity of ESs, and was selected as the study area. In this study, we used the fuzzy k-means (FKM) algorithm to establish LHUs. Three major ESs (water yield, net primary productivity (NPP), and soil conservation) in 2000 and 2015 were quantified using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model and Carnegie Ames-Stanford approach (CASA) model. Then, we explored the spatial variation in ESs along terrain gradients and LHUs. Correlation analysis was used to analyze the driving factors of ESs in each terrain region and LHU. The results showed that altitude and terrain niche increased along LHUs. Water yield and soil conservation increased from 696.86 mm and 3920.19 t/km2 to 1061.12 mm and 5117.90 t/km2, respectively, while NPP decreased from 666.95 gC/m2 to 648.86 gC/m2. The ESs in different LHUs differed greatly. ESs increased first and then decreased along LHUs in 2000. In 2015, water yield decreased along LHUs, while NPP and soil conservation showed a fluctuating trend. Water yield was mainly affected by precipitation, temperature and NDVI were the main drivers of NPP, and soil conservation was greatly affected by precipitation and slope. The driving factors of the same ES were different in different terrain areas and LHUs. The variation and driving factors of ESs in LHUs were similar to some terrain gradients. To some extent, LHUs can represent multiple terrain features. This study can provide important support for mountain ecosystem zoning management and decision-making.
Highlights
Sun explored the trade-offs and synergies among multiple hydrological ecosystem services (HESs) in different topographic basins, and the results demonstrated that the intercorrelations among HESs varied significantly between the western plain and eastern mountain areas [13]
The concept of landscape heterogeneous units (LHUs) proposed in this study can simplify the terrain parameters considered in policy, and the results showed that ESs had significant spatial variation in LHUs and even greater variation in water yield
The spatial heterogeneity of ESs may be further understood through the construction of LHUs
Summary
Ecosystem services (ESs), which are coupled with natural and social systems, directly and indirectly influence human survival and development [1,2]. ESs link ecosystems with economic activities and have become a hot topic of research in recent years. ESs are closely linked to human well-being and can form important components of sustainable management policies [3,4,5]. Decision-makers seek to maximize ESs through effective management [6]. Identifying the spatiotemporal variation characteristics of ESs
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