Trade-off Analysis of Ecosystem Services in a Mountainous Karst Area, China

Abstract

Diversity in ecosystem services and variation in land use by humans leads to reciprocal trade-offs or synergistic relationships between different ecosystem services. To achieve the dual goals of improving human welfare and developing sustainable ecosystems, understanding and clarifying these relationships is an important step. This study selected a mountainous karst area of China as a study area and used the InVEST (Integrate Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs) model and the production possibility frontier analysis method to evaluate the spatio-temporal variations in ecosystem services and analyze the trade-off or synergic relationship between different services. The results showed that from 1990 to 2010, the percentage variations in annual mean water yield, soil conservation, carbon storage, and nutrient retention in the mountainous karst area were 2.47, 39.43, −0.34, and −1.16%, respectively. Water yield had trade-off relationships with soil conservation, nutrient retention, and carbon storage, increasing water yields were correlated with decreases in soil conservation, nutrient retention, and carbon storage. Soil conservation and nutrient retention also showed a trade-off relationship, decreasing soil conservation was correlated with gradually increasing nutrient retention. Carbon storage had synergic relationships with nutrient retention and soil conservation, continuous increases in carbon storage were correlated with incremental increases in nutrient retention and gradual decreases in soil conservation.