Farmland Conservation Research Articles

The Impact of Agricultural Socialization Services on the Ecological Protection of Rice Farmland in Jianghan Plain, China

The ecological protection of cultivated land is crucial for advancing high-quality agricultural development. This study analyzes the impact of agricultural socialization services on the ecological conservation of farmland, focusing on the reduction of chemical fertilizers and pesticides among rice farmers in the Jianghan Plain area. Utilizing data from 743 farmer household surveys conducted in 2023, the findings reveal that agricultural socialization services significantly encourage farmers to reduce chemical input usage. For every 1% increase in the level of agricultural social services, the average fertilizer use per hectare will decrease by 14% and the average pesticide use per hectare will decrease by 16.4%. The study identifies scale operation, factor substitution, and alleviation of capital constraints as mediating factors enhancing the efficacy of these services. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis indicates that these services are more effective in reducing chemical inputs among large-scale and newer-generation farmers compared to their small-scale and older counterparts. Additionally, technology-intensive socialized services exhibit a stronger impact on reducing chemical inputs than labor-intensive services.

Habitat Quality Evolution and Multi-Scenario Simulation Based on Land Use Change in the Jialing River Basin

The Jialing River watershed has seen substantial changes in habitat quality and land use throughout the last 20 years. It is yet unknown, however, how the habitat quality will react to these changes in land use. In this work, multi-scenario simulations for 2030 were carried out using the PLUS and InVEST models, and the land use changes and habitat quality evolution in the Jialing River basin from 2000 to 2020 were evaluated. In this study, the following facts were determined: (1) The study area’s southern region is mainly farmland, whereas the northern part is predominantly forestland. The most significant changes were a decrease of 1.46% in the grassland and an increase of 1.07% in the construction land. (2) The northern area typically has greater habitat quality than the southern region, at habitat quality indices of 0.5401, 0.5338, and 0.5084 for the year 2000, the year 2010, and the year 2020, respectively, demonstrating a pattern of steady decline. (3) Converting farmland to forestland can successfully increase habitat quality, but the conversion of grassland and forestland to farmland is the primary cause of the decline of habitat quality. (4) Global Moran’s indices of −0.7809, −0.7537, and −0.6376 for 2000, 2010, and 2020, respectively, were found in the correlation study between habitat quality and land use intensity, showing a high negative link. The local indicators of spatial association (LISA) maps indicated that the northern region had high land use intensity with low habitat quality, while the southern region had low land use intensity with low habitat quality. (5) The outcomes of the multi-scenario simulations show that, except under the ecological conservation scenario (0.5123) where habitat quality improved, there was a certain degree of deterioration under the business-as-usual (0.4381), farmland conservation (0.4941), and sustainable development (0.4909) scenarios. For future sustainable development, strict control of the encroachment on farmland and forestland is recommended, alongside the adoption of proactive measures to improve habitat quality.

Ungrazed seminatural habitats around farms benefit bird conservation without enhancing foodborne pathogen risks

ContextConservation in working landscapes is critical for halting biodiversity declines and ensuring farming system sustainability. However, concerns that wildlife may carry foodborne pathogens has created pressure on farmers to remove habitat and reduce biodiversity, undermining farmland conservation. Nonetheless, simplified farming landscapes may host bird communities that carry higher foodborne disease risks.ObjectivesWe analyzed the effects of local farming practices and surrounding landscapes on bird communities and food-safety risks across 30 California lettuce farms. Specifically, we sought to determine how farmland diversification affects bird diversity, fecal contamination, and foodborne pathogen incidences, thereby identifying potential tradeoffs between managing farms for bird conservation versus food safety.MethodsWe surveyed birds at 227 point-count locations, quantified fecal contamination along 120 transects, and assayed 601 bird feces for pathogenic E. coli, Campylobacter spp., and Salmonella spp. We then used hierarchical models to quantify effects of farm management and landscape context on bird communities and food-safety risks.ResultsSurrounding ungrazed seminatural areas were associated with higher bird diversity, more species of conservation concern, and fewer flocks that may increase risks from foodborne pathogens. In contrast, on-farm diversification practices and surrounding grazing lands offered weaker bird conservation benefits. Surrounding grazed lands were associated with more potentially pathogenic bird feces in crop fields.ConclusionsOur results suggest that habitat conservation around produce farms could support bird conservation without increasing foodborne pathogens, especially on farms further from grazing lands. Thus, interventions that diversify farming systems offer potential to simultaneously conserve biodiversity and provide safe food for human consumption.

Land for Whom? Diversity, Land Trusts, and Farmers and Gardeners from Marginalized Backgrounds in New England, U.S.

Land trusts in the U.S. play an important role in preventing the loss of farmland to development. Farmers seeking affordable land may benefit from these conservation efforts. Yet the distribution of these benefits across farmer groups is unclear. This study asks: To what extent are land trusts meeting the needs of farmers and gardeners from marginalized backgrounds? Interviews with land trust staff and focus groups with marginalized farmers and gardeners in New England, USA reveal discrepancies in how diversity and land access are discussed. Access to adequate, affordable land was a serious concern among farmers and gardeners, yet few land trusts had programs to increase access for diverse populations. Land trusts approached diversity, equity, and inclusion work by making limited commitments, pivoting to social class, and avoidance due to perceptions of mission drift. These findings have significant implications for who benefits and who is excluded from private farmland conservation.

Response of Soil Moisture to Four Rainfall Regimes and Tillage Measures under Natural Rainfall in Red Soil Region, Southern China

Investigating the effects of natural rainfall on the soil moisture for sloping farmland is extremely important for comprehending a variety of hydrological processes. Rainfall regimes can elicit different responses to soil moisture at the depth of soil layers, and the responses may differ depending on the landscape position of the sloping farmland. This paper utilized the surface runoff natural rainfall and soil moisture measured on sloping farmland with conventional tillage and contour tillage in the red soil area of China to investigate the influence of natural rainfall events on soil moisture content and to evaluate if the response results were consistent across the four rainfall regimes. Natural rainfall events were classified into different four regimes in line with rainfall duration, rainfall amount, and the maximum 30 min rainfall intensity (I30) by the k-means clustering method, including advanced, intermediate, uniform and delayed regimes. The result showed that the advanced regime was the predominant one in the study area, which represented 45.9% of the total rainfall events. The rainfall regimes influenced the surface runoff coefficient and runoff depth on sloping farmland for conventional and contour tillage, with the uniform regime generating the highest runoff coefficient (5.20% and 5.82%) and runoff depth (2.00% and 2.05%), respectively. For the conventional tillage, soil moisture at a depth of 0–20 cm increased appreciably when the rainfall amount was larger than 20 mm and larger than 30 mm for the advanced regime. For the contour tillage, soil moisture in 20–40 cm layer increased for the advanced regime when the rainfall amount was larger than 15 mm and 30 mm, while the values were modified with rainfall duration and the antecedent dry day (ADD). A longer rainfall duration had a more obvious effect on soil moisture increasing in deep soil. At a depth of 20 cm, the ADD showed an appreciably positive correlation with the increment in soil moisture, which means that a brief ADD produces a compounding effect for a natural rainfall event. The present results underline the complexity of the effect of the rainfall events on soil moisture under two tillage measures for different rainfall regimes and suggest that the advanced regime significantly affects the distinction of soil moisture and the contour tillage can effectively reduce soil water loss and enhance water storage on the sloping farmland with red soil, presenting a theoretical basis for local soil and water conservation research and sloping farmland conservation tillage management.

Multi-Scenario Simulating the Impacts of Land Use Changes on Ecosystem Health in Urban Agglomerations on the Northern Slope of the Tianshan Mountain, China

It is of great significance for scientific land use planning and ecological security protection to clarify the impacts of land use changes on an ecosystem’s health. Based on the dynamic evolution of land use and ecosystem health on the Northern Slope of Tianshan Mountain (NSTM) from 2000 to 2020, this study utilized the patch-generating land use simulation (PLUS) model, the Vitality–Organization–Resilience–Services (VORS) model, and the elasticity approach to assess the impacts of land use changes on ecosystem health under four different scenarios: Natural Development Scenario (ND), Farmland Conservation Priority Scenario (FP), Ecological Conservation Priority Scenario (EP), and Urban Development Priority Scenario (UD). The results indicate that (1) land use on the NSTM from 2000 to 2020 was predominantly characterized by barren land and grassland. (2) The overall level of ecosystem health on the NSTM was poor from 2000 to 2020 but showed a gradual improvement trend. (3) Ecosystem health levels vary greatly across scenarios. In general, ecosystem health improves under FP and EP scenarios but deteriorates significantly under ND and UD scenarios. The resilience of ecosystem health varies significantly across different land categories. In the future, optimizing the current land use pattern and refining the ecological protection policy are essential to enhance ecosystem health and services in the NSTM.

Policy insights for wind energy from a choice experiment stated preference efficient design in Apulia region (Italy)

The present work argues that wind energy is either a positive or negative determinant against the risks associated with its use, and aims at: evaluating the incidence of energy risks on the perception of wind energy; analysing the trade-offs between a wind farm installation, land conservation and energy risks; suggesting adequate policy indications for the efficiency of future energy markets. The study compares the results from logit models, which estimate the distribution of the utility coefficients with a Choice Experiment approach using a stated preference efficient design and honesty priming techniques to overcome the hypothetical bias. Main findings indicate a positive attitude for the proposed wind energy scenarios in terms of Aesthetical impact, CO2 and Bill savings, and Costs, as well as more densely distributed wind farms producing more energy. Installation and maintenance costs and the rate of avian collisions are considered acceptable. From the main findings, useful policy insights assess the efficiency of wind farms projects to reduce costs and energy prices. Simplification of bureaucracy, direct economic benefits for local communities, citizens’ participation, and dissemination of information are key practices for future developments of wind energy markets.

Synergies between biodiversity conservation and drinking water protection in an agriculture dominated landscape – Case study of the Lower Savinja Valley in Slovenia

The growing world population and global market competition are putting pressure on high-yield food production, reducing the space available for low-intensity agricultural practices that support high biodiversity. In search of synergies between different environmental policy instruments, the potential of drinking water protection zones (WPZ) for high nature value (HNV) farmland conservation and connectivity in the Lower Savinja Valley in Slovenia was examined. In drinking water protection zones, restrictions of fertilizer and pesticide use are enforced, which have demonstrated beneficial effects on biodiversity. Overall, HNV farmland covered 25.8% of the area, of which 6% was protected in almost equal proportions by Natura 2000 sites and WPZ. Zonation prioritization assigned higher average scores to cells in WPZ compared to Natura sites and unprotected areas indicating high value of WPZ for HNV connectivity. The proportion of WPZ receiving the highest Zonation prioritization scores ranged from 23% to 70% depending on connectivity scale. Simulation of conversion of arable to HNV farmland on WPZ added 58.2 ha, and increased overall HNV farmland cover in the Lower Savinja Valley from 25.8% to 26.3%, further reinforcing the importance of WPZ for connectivity. Drinking water protection zones under different levels of protection cover approximately 20% of the territory of Slovenia. Given their large extent, we suggest that when planning for HNV farmland conservation and ecological networks within intensive agriculture dominated landscapes, WPZ should be evaluated for their potential and integrated into planning. Analysis focused on the spatial configuration of HNV farmland but lacked information on habitat quality, species presence and management practices in WPZ. Further studies of the effect of WPZ management restrictions on biodiversity are needed.

Contributive Effect of Land Management Indicators to Farmers Farmland Conservation in Oyo State, Nigeria

Major problem facing tropical agriculture is the inherent low fertility status of most of the soils because of the predominant low-activity. The study explained the contributive effect of sustainable land management indicators to land use on farmers’ productivity in Oyo State Nigeria. A two-stage sampling technique was employed in selecting 330 farmers from the four agricultural zones in Oyo State. Structured questionnaire was used to obtain primary data. The data collected were analysed using descriptive and Fuzzy logic analysis (Fuzzy set theory). The result revealed that the result of Fuzzy Logic which was used to compute the composite indicators of unsustainable land use (IULU) showed that the total IULU of 0.26 obtained indicated that farmers’ land management practices in the study area are generally sustainable. Residue cover, land fallowing, compaction and rooting, salinity and crop rotations among others have the highest relative contributions of 3.2%, 3.2%, 3.2%, 3.2% and 3.2% respectively to land farmers land conservation, while other indicators contribute lower percentage to land conservation been unsustainable in the study with relative contributions of 2.1%, 2.3%, 2.3%, 2.0, 2.5% and 2.4% respectively also majority of the farmer (60%) are sustainable and contributed larger percentage (96.4%) to sustainability and had between 0.1-0.2 with minimum of 0.00004 and maximum of 0.95650 sustainable land index in the study. The study recommended among others that cultural practices for erosion prevention should be encouraged by planting of cover crops and planting of trees and other agronomic best practices which enhance soil conservation and improve more on their level of sustainable land use indicators. Keywords: Sustainable, Land, Conservation, Indicators, Aggregation, Fuzzy, Nigeria

Farmland Dynamics and Its Grain Production Efficiency and Ecological Security in China’s Major Grain-Producing Regions between 2000 and 2020

Understanding the land use/cover changes associated with agricultural production is essential for food security in increasingly urbanizing areas. Such studies have been widely conducted in different regions of China; yet, its major grain-producing regions (MGPRs) remain less studied. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted analyses of the land use conversion matrix, spatial hot spots, decoupling, and index evaluation from a spatiotemporal perspective, to quantify the MGPRs’ farmland changes and its grain production efficiency and ecological security during 2000–2020. The results showed the following: (1) Farmland in the MGPRs experienced a net decline of 2.54 × 104 km2, with significant spatial heterogeneity in the area, extent, and speed of loss/gain. (2) Farmland gain came from mostly forest, grassland, and unused land, with hotspots in northeastern China, while farmland loss increasingly changed to construction lands, with hotspots covering east-central China and in the suburbs surrounding capital cities. (3) Grain production in the MGPRs increased by 1.6 times in the past 20 years, via its strong decoupling from farmland quantity in especially central-eastern China. (4) Land ecological security in the MGPRs was less secure but has been improving with non-homogeneous regional differences, while it demonstrated a spatial pattern of “higher security in the north–south and lower in the middle”. Our findings suggested that China’s MGPRs would continue to lose farmland and China’s food security should require a sustainable decoupling of grain production and farmland quantity while maintaining ecological security. This study has significant policy implications for farmland conservation in China’s MGPRs, as well as highlighting the landscape sustainability opportunities of urbanization-associated farmland loss in densely populated human–environment systems in general.

How is it effective for farmers to adopt environmentally friendly cultivated land protection technology: a configurational perspective

The adoption of environmentally friendly farmland conservation techniques by farmers is an important way to effectively curb agricultural surface pollution and promote the conservation of farmland quality. Based on 425 farmers’ in-depth interview data, a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis method was used to construct a psychological cognition (farmers’ awareness and willingness to participate)—external context (organizational linkages and government regulation)—behavioral effect model to reveal the conditional configuration and multivariate paths of psychological cognition and external contextual factors influencing farmers’ behavioral effects on the adoption of environmentally friendly farmland conservation technologies. The results show that individual behavioral decision factors do not influence the behavioral effects of farmers. The results show that individual behavioral decision factors are not necessary to drive the effective adoption of environmentally friendly farmland conservation technologies and that multiple decision factors interact to form three sets of configurations that enhance the behavioral effectiveness of farmers, summarized as the willingness-to-participate dominant model, the internal and external constraints dominant model, and the external context dominant model.

농지법상 농업진흥지역의 농지전용에 관한 고찰

Article 121, Paragraph 1 of the Constitution stipulates the principle of tillage in relation to farmland. Ownership of farmland is owned by the person who uses the farmland to farm. On the other hand, Article 122 of the Constitution permits development by stipulating that necessary restrictions and obligations may be imposed in accordance with the law for the efficient and balanced use, development, and preservation of the national land. Representative development laws include the “Act on the Promotion of Exchanges between Cities and Rural Communities” and the “Basic Act on Agriculture, Rural Communities and Food Industry”. It is to improve the quality of life of rural residents and to enhance the economic vitality of rural areas. In order to achieve this goal, agricultural land is converted and developed. In order to stably supply safe agricultural products and high-quality food to the people, warehouses or factories are established. At this time, farmland in the agricultural promotion area, which is an agricultural and forestry area where the price of land is relatively low, is preferred. At this time, farmland development is mostly carried out as a small-scale project. When small-scale farmland is developed, the connectivity of farmland deteriorates, which interferes with the automated farming method of farming, resulting in a decrease in agricultural productivity. And it is causing the reckless development of agricultural land. There is a problem that farmers who need farmland cannot purchase farmland due to the increase in land price due to farmland development, which hinders the improvement of farmers' income. This study examines the basic concept of farmland, the purpose of designation of agricultural promotion areas, and the details of permission (consultation) for farmland conversion. The purpose is to derive problems from the perspective of farmland conservation following conversion permission (consultation), and to present the contents to be improved to help preserve farmland even a little.

농지법상 농업진흥지역의 농지전용에 관한 고찰

Article 121, Paragraph 1 of the Constitution stipulates the principle of tillage in relation to farmland. Ownership of farmland is owned by the person who uses the farmland to farm. On the other hand, Article 122 of the Constitution permits development by stipulating that necessary restrictions and obligations may be imposed in accordance with the law for the efficient and balanced use, development, and preservation of the national land. Representative development laws include the “Act on the Promotion of Exchanges between Cities and Rural Communities” and the “Basic Act on Agriculture, Rural Communities and Food Industry”. It is to improve the quality of life of rural residents and to enhance the economic vitality of rural areas. In order to achieve this goal, agricultural land is converted and developed. In order to stably supply safe agricultural products and high-quality food to the people, warehouses or factories are established. At this time, farmland in the agricultural promotion area, which is an agricultural and forestry area where the price of land is relatively low, is preferred. At this time, farmland development is mostly carried out as a small-scale project. When small-scale farmland is developed, the connectivity of farmland deteriorates, which interferes with the automated farming method of farming, resulting in a decrease in agricultural productivity. And it is causing the reckless development of agricultural land. There is a problem that farmers who need farmland cannot purchase farmland due to the increase in land price due to farmland development, which hinders the improvement of farmers' income. This study examines the basic concept of farmland, the purpose of designation of agricultural promotion areas, and the details of permission (consultation) for farmland conversion. The purpose is to derive problems from the perspective of farmland conservation following conversion permission (consultation), and to present the contents to be improved to help preserve farmland even a little.

農林業問題研究への多様な接近

The sustainable use of agricultural resources in the rural–urban fringe was discussed from macro-, micro-, and mezzo- perspectives. From a macro-perspective, Dr. Akita argued that mixed land use between food production and housing, which enables direct-to-consumer sales of foods, would be an ideal for modern cities. The necessity to incorporate farmland conservation into urban planning as a green policy was then discussed. From a micro-perspective, Dr. Yagi argued that it was necessary to maintain good relationships between agricultural management entities and their local stakeholders. Issues related to farmland consolidation and farmland inheritance in urbanized areas were then discussed. From a mezzo-perspective, Dr. Noda argued that in order to achieve sustainable use of local resources, it is important that they are managed by the community and that the community has a certain kind of social right to the resources, just like to the local commons. The issue whether such social rights should be granted based on legal proceedings or administrative proceedings was then discussed. Ultimately, it was shown that by asserting the rights as personal rights instead of property rights, it would be possible to grant such rights not only through administrative proceedings but also legal ones.

Assessing governability of agricultural systems: Municipal agricultural planning in Metro Vancouver, Canada

Effective governance of agricultural systems is needed for achieving goals of food security, resilient food systems, and addressing the impacts of climate change. Local governments have an increasing interest in the role of agriculture in meeting these goals. However, alignment varies greatly between local governing systems and agricultural systems. Governability is a measure of the degree to which a system can be governed for a set of specified purposes or goals. To test the limits of governability in relation to agricultural planning, we interviewed 22 agricultural planners from municipal, regional, and provincial government, and analyzed agricultural plans (n = 8) and Official Community Plans (n = 6) for six municipalities in Metro Vancouver, Canada to identify interactions between broader municipal governance, agricultural planning, and agricultural systems outcomes. Findings indicate that the governing system for agriculture in this region includes both mandated obligations (conservation of farmland) and voluntary obligations (economic development, advocacy, public awareness). Multiple limits to governing agricultural systems include the promotion and implementation of simple solutions to complex problems, limited ability to engage with the diversity of the agricultural sector and their different needs, and governance mismatches with the boundaries of agriculture (i.e., farm parcels, Agricultural Land Reserve area) and the administrative scale of the municipality. The discussion identifies specific areas where municipal governance systems could transition to improve agricultural outcomes such as farmland protection, farmer economic viability, and integration with broader food systems.

Does the change of agricultural zoning policy achieve farmland protection in Taiwan?

Agricultural zoning is a measure used to sustain the orderly growth of agriculture and preserve prime farmland. However, research on the proclamation effects of actual economic impact and zoning effectiveness during policy transition is rare. This paper provides the first empirical evidence of the agricultural zoning effect on farmland use under policy change and the proposed amendatory Factory Management Act using the unique case of Taiwan. We apply a fixed-effects panel regression to explore the zoning effectiveness on farmland use with repeated cross-sectional zoning and rice fields data from a combination of geographic and management information systems in 2015 and 2017. It turns out that there is an apparent reduction in paddy fields within common agricultural zones of about 5.2 ha on a village basis, suggesting that the zoning policy did not achieve the aim of farmland conservation. Before the new zoning map takes effect, farmland loss could total more than 75,000 ha. The significant adverse impacts of the industrial workforce, land price of industrial zones, and relative price ratios of industrial and residential verse agricultural zones on farmland use may reveal the intense competing interests and land use between industries. Our findings also show that the entire farming workforce is still aging and less educated, which is detrimental to improving sustainable farming development. Strict law enforcement and consistent policy are required to correct these distortions of farmland.

Impact of Farmland Change on Vegetation NPP in the One River and Two Streams Region of Tibet

Studies on the impacts of a particular land use type change are relatively rare, especially in the Tibetan Plateau region (TP). This study focused on the impacts of farmland use change on grain supply and ecosystem stability in the Yarlung Zangbo river and its two tributaries (also known as One River and Two Streams, ORTS), using net primary productivity (NPP), known as the total amount of organic matter left after removal of carbon absorbed from the atmosphere by vegetation through photosynthesis, as a common proxy for farmland productivity and ecosystem stability. The trend analysis method was applied to measure the inter-annual change of NPP, and an ecological impact index was constructed to quantify the impact of farmland use change on the NPP change in the ORTS region. The results showed that: (1) The total area of farmland decreased by 6.09% from 2000 to 2018. Built-up land occupation and ecological restoration were the main reasons for the decrease of farmland area, while there was also new reclaimed farmland, transferred from ecological land. (2) The NPP in the ORTS region was roughly on an increasing trend, while the trends of NPP in different farmland change areas were not the same. Specifically, the NPP of ecological restoration, newly reclaimed farmland, and unchanged farmland areas all showed a significant increasing trend, while the NPP in the area of farmland occupied by built-up land showed a significant decreasing trend. (3) The impact of farmland changes from 2000 to 2018 contributed 1.22% to the increase of NPP in the ORTS region. This study not only provides a research paradigm in quantifying the production and ecological impacts of a particular land use type change that can be applied in related studies in other regions, but at the same time, the results of the empirical analysis in the ORTS region can also provide suggestions for the rational use and conservation of farmland and the stability and sustainable development of ecosystems for the region and even the TP.

Training and Self-Learning: How to Improve Farmers’ Willingness to Adopt Farmland Conservation Technology? Evidence from Jiangsu Province of China

The quality of cultivated land is an important basis for guaranteeing grain yield, and improving the quality of cultivated land is an important initiative of the Chinese government to implement its food security strategy. This paper explores the effects of formal technical training and informal online self-directed learning on farmers’ willingness to adopt cultivated land conservation technology using farmer-level survey data. The results show that farmers’ participation in technical training effectively increased their willingness to adopt straw return technologies, but participation in online self-directed learning did not affect farmers’ willingness to adopt, while farmers who participated in both technical training and online self-directed learning had stronger willingness to adopt. These results show that internet-based self-directed learning is a useful supplement to the formal training system. Further analysis revealed that participation in technical training increased farmers’ awareness of the usefulness of the straw-return technology, which in turn increased their willingness to adopt the conservation technology of cropland. This paper clarifies the impact and mechanisms of the two main existing technology learning modes on farmers’ adoption of new technologies in rural China and provides a reference for the promotion of agricultural technology diffusion and the improvement of the quality of cultivated land in China.

Spatio-Temporal Characteristics of Trade-Offs and Synergies in Ecosystem Services at Watershed and Landscape Scales: A Case Analysis of the Yellow River Basin (Henan Section)

The changes and interrelationships of ecosystem services at different global and regional scales have been actively investigated. Clarifying the trade-offs and synergies between ecosystem services from a multi-scale scientific perspective is vital to improve the coordinated and sustainable development of the watershed and ecological protection. As an important ecological barrier region of the Yellow River Basin, the Henan section provides a variety of important ecosystem services. This study analyzes the characteristics of land use changes in the Yellow River Basin (Henan section) from 1990 to 2020. Based on the InVEST model, four ecosystem services-water production, soil conservation, carbon storage and food supply have been evaluated. The Spearman correlation coefficient was used to further reveal the spatial and temporal characteristics of the trade-offs and synergies at different levels of each service. The results showed that: (1) From 1990 to 2020, the basin was dominated by farmland conservation. The construction land area mainly exhibited an inflow behavior, while other land use types were mainly related to outflow. (2) From 1990 to 2020, the water yield, soil conservation and carbon storage first increased and then decreased, while food supply gradually increased. The spatial distribution of these ecosystem services was lower in the southwest and slightly higher in the northeast and farmland had the highest capacity of water production and food supply, while woodland had the highest capacity for soil conservation and carbon storage. (3) The Spearman rank correlation coefficient indicated that the trade-offs for the ecosystem services in the Yellow River Basin (Henan section) dominated before 2000, and the synergies gradually strengthened after 2000. (4) There were clear spatial heterogeneities in the ecosystem services of the basin; for instance, the functions in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River Basin (Henan section) were mainly trade-offs, while the higher elevations in the middle reaches exhibited synergistic relationships. This study aims to clarify the trade-offs and synergies between ecosystem services at the different levels. Based on our findings, countermeasures and suggestions for ecological protection and management are proposed to promote the coordinated development of social economy and ecological protection.

China’s urban-rural expansion and natural habitat loss since the 1980s: Retrospective analysis and future suggestions

Natural habitats transformed to city or countryside with human activities of different intensities have reshaped regional and global landscapes, especially in those rapid developed low- and mid-income countries, like China. China’s rapid shift in urban and rural expansion, which are greater than and equal to, and below county-level’s artificial land expansion, and reduction in farmland and ecological land are important for determining future urban and rural development under the conservation and protection of farmland and ecosystems; however, such an understanding is still inadequate. Here, we show that both urban and rural expansions have encroached on farmland and ecological land since 1980; rural areas, with 1.33 km2 × 105 km2 in 2020, remain larger than urban areas, with 0.97 km2 × 105 km2 in 2020. However, urban areas (1857.5 km2/year) increased faster than rural areas (695.0 km2/year) during 1980–2020, rural expansion primarily occurred in the 1980s and 1990s, and urban expansion primarily occurred after 2000 especially 2000s. Farmland is the major land cover that has been occupied by urban and rural expansion for 53.7 and 39.1 thousand km2, especially in East China’s densely populated areas. And, both farmland and ecological land were primarily encroached during 2000s. Our results demonstrate imbalanced urban and rural expansion and encroachment on farmland and ecological land; thus, both forms of encroachment should be optimized at the regional scale based on the socioeconomic needs and natural conditions, and diverse policies can be designed to support local sustainable development.