Temporal and spatial variations and the relationships of land use pattern and ecosystem services in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China.

Abstract

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the key and largest ecological hotspot globally with enormous multiple ecosystem services. The vast and unique alpine ecosystems in this area have been subjected to the increased human disturbances, such as intensified land use. To explore the magnitude, spatiotemporal pattern and transformation process of land use in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and their impacts on the major ecosystem services during 1980-2020, we used the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs model to simulate the spatiotemporal variations of three types of ecosystem services, including habitat quality, carbon storage, and water yield. We analyzed the impacts of land use change on ecosystem services. The findings revealed that land use pattern remained generally stable from 1980 to 2020, with alpine grassland and desert as the dominant land use types. Habitat quality had generally enhanced, while carbon storage and water yield increased firstly and then declined. The magnitudes of three services gradually increased from the northwest to the southeast, corresponding to the spatial transformation pattern from desert via grassland to forest. The correlation between land use intensity and ecosystem services showed significant spatial heterogeneity, particulaly in counties greatly affected by land use intensity which concentrated predominantly in the mid-west, southern, and mid-east regions of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The results have certain guiding significance for formulating land use policy and regulating land use pattern of alpine ecosystems in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.