Ecosystem Service Trade-offs Research Articles

Impacts of Land Use and Climate Change on Water-Related Ecosystem Service Trade-offs in the Yangtze River Economic Belt

Land use/cover change (LUCC) and climate change have important influences on ecosystem services (ESs) and their interactions, particularly in regions with rapid socioeconomic development. However, little research has distinguished the impacts of these 2 factors on ES interactions. Therefore, the impacts of LUCC and climate change on water-related ecosystem service (WES) trade-offs in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) were measured by combining spatial analysis with ES valuation. These results indicated that water yield, soil retention, and water purification presented varying degrees of increase from 1990 to 2020, with rates of 4.53%, 21.80% and 5.40%, respectively. The order of the mean WES trade-offs in the upstream, midstream, and downstream regions remained stable at the grid scale from 1990 to 2020, while there were important changes at the county scale. Climate change had a greater impact on WES trade-offs than LUCC, with climate change dominating 88.17% of the total area. The effect of climate change on WES trade-offs across areas was in the order of downstream > midstream > upstream, while the effect of LUCC was not obvious. The relative importance of drivers on WES trade-offs from 1990 to 2020 was dominated by climate dominance (71.50%), followed by LUCC to climate dominance (13.66%) and least by LUCC dominance (0.65%). This research emphasized the importance of LUCC and climate change on ES trade-offs in heavily disturbed areas, providing important guidance for multi-objective land management that sustainably provides ESs.

Effect of climate change on ecosystem service trade-offs and synergies: a case study in Huai River Basin

Effect of climate change on ecosystem service trade-offs and synergies: a case study in Huai River Basin

多情景模拟下南四湖流域生态系统服务权衡变化研究

多情景模拟下南四湖流域生态系统服务权衡变化研究

Evaluating Trade-Offs in Ecosystem Services for Blue–Green–Grey Infrastructure Planning

The effectiveness and feasibility of urban planning are significantly influenced by the supply capacity and net value of ecosystem services offered by blue–green–grey infrastructure. This study used a cost–benefit analysis (CBA) to ascertain and contrast the ecological net present value (NPV) of the blue–green–grey infrastructure in three distinct functional areas (a park, a square, and a residential district) under 12 scenarios during the period characterized by representative summer temperature, which we refer to as “warm periods”. Our findings suggest varied optimal scenarios for the three functional areas. For the park, the most beneficial scenario involved an integrated approach with a 5% increase in grey infrastructure and a 5% replacement of green infrastructure with grey. This scenario yielded an NPV of 7.31 USD/m2 in a short-term life span (25 years) and 11.59 USD/m2 in a long-term life span (150 years). In the case of the square, the introduction of an additional 5% of blue infrastructure led to the highest NPV of ecological benefits, resulting in gains of 1.49 USD/m2 for a short-term life span and 2.18 USD/m2 for a long-term life span. For the residential district, the scenario where 5% of green infrastructure was replaced with blue infrastructure resulted in the highest NPV across all scenarios, with values of 8.02 USD/m2 and 10.65 USD/m2 for a short- and long-term life span, respectively. Generally, the most beneficial scenario yielded greater benefits over the long term compared with short-term projects. By quantifying the ecological benefits of different blue–green–grey infrastructure combinations, our research provides theoretical support for optimizing both the ecological and economic value of urban infrastructures. This study could benefit academics, practitioners, and policymakers in urban planning in optimizing the allocation of the blue–green–grey infrastructure.

Evolution and zoning of spatial ecosystem functional stability in the southern hilly region of China: a “structure–function” perspective

IntroductionA series of significant ecological construction projects in the southern hilly region have brought about substantial changes to the ecological status and comprehensive zoning of the region. Hunan Province, with its strategic significance, was chosen as a representative research subject in the southern hilly region.MethodsWe conducted a dynamic evaluation of the ecological status change and comprehensive zoning of Hunan Province from a structure–function perspective by applying the transfer matrix, Theil-Sen, Mann-Kendall, and ecosystem service trade-offs or synergies methods. The research goal was to integrate and harmonize structural complexity and functional diversification, providing valuable insights for optimizing both ecological background and territorial background.ResultsThe main results are as follows: (1) The structural changes of ecosystems were mainly concentrated in settlement and Cropland ecosystems. While the area of bulti-up ecosystems has increased significantly, from 1.34% in 2000 to 2.72% in 2020. Cropland ecosystems marking a decrease of 1.39%, with a continued conversion of Cropland into construction land ecosystems. (2) Ecosystem function changes have introduced instability. Over time, NPP exhibited an oscillating trend of increase followed by a decrease. Spatially, there was a sharp decline in peripheral building land, and the regions of declining NPP displayed a lateral U-shaped distribution. (3) The overall trend in ecosystem service changes was positive. Quantitatively, GP and CS experienced an ascending-then-decreasing pattern, while HQ showed a weak decline and WY increased annually. At the county scale, there was noticeable spatial heterogeneity. Human socio-economic activities and environmental protection policies exert a significant impact on the ecological conditions within the study area. (4) Regarding the national territory space function partition, urban functional zones have primarily catered to residential functions and were mainly distributed in the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan area.DiscussionEcological functional zones were mainly centered on ecological functions, and most were located in the mountainous areas of western and southern Hunan Province. The agricultural function areas were mainly to serve production functions and were mainly located in the Dongting Lake Plain, the nearshore plain of the mainstream and tributary systems of the rivers of Xiang, Zi, Yuan, and Li. In general, the changes in ecosystem structure and function in the study area reflect changes in ecological conditions. In the future, ecosystem diversity, stability, and sustainability should be improved from an integrated structure–function perspective.

Trade-Offs in Ecosystem Services: Clarifying Concepts and Measuring Severity within the Production Possibility Frontier Framework

Production possibility frontier (PPF) in economics denotes the set of all efficient combinations of the amounts of two or more goods that can be produced from the given resources and within the given technology. In the ecosystem services context, it corresponds to all efficient combinations of the amounts of two or more ecosystem services that can be obtained from the given land area within the given management framework. PPF thus captures the conflict, or trade-off, between the production of different goods or services. However, there is a lack of an agreed understanding of what precisely in a PPF expresses the degree of that conflict. This lack of clarity may greatly confound the discussions on trade-offs. This paper tries to answer the two following questions: (1) what exactly is trade-off in the PPF context? (2) how to effectively measure and compare trade-offs across PPFs? In response to the second question, a quantitative generic measure of trade-off severity is proposed.

Identifying critical landscape patterns for simultaneous provision of multiple ecosystem services – A case study in the central district of Wuhu City, China

Landscape patterns have a global impact on ecosystem services (ESs). Managing land to enhance the provision of multiple ESs is vital for ecological resilience and sustainable development. Identifying critical landscape patterns that simultaneously influence multiple ESs provision based on understanding ES trade-offs is needed. Our study aims to develop an approach to find the relationship between multiple ESs provision and landscape patterns, identify the critical landscape patterns that simultaneously promote multiple ESs provision, and give suggestions on land management based on an understanding of the relationships of ESs. Taking the central district of Wuhu City as an example, production possibility frontier (PPF) and Pareto ranks are used to identify relationships between ESs and extract the landscape pattern characteristics of samples that effectively enhance multiple ESs. Our analysis of trade-offs between ESs highlights the complexity of ES relationships and emphasizes the necessity for multi-dimensional investigative approaches. Landscape metrics of Mean Perimeter Area Ratio (PARA_MN), Coefficient of Variation of Perimeter (PERI_CV), Area-weighted Mean Fractal Dimension (FRAC_AM), and Relative Mutual Information (RELMUTINF) emerged as critical determinants of multiple ESs supply. Our findings suggest enhancing patch shape complexity when conducting land use planning to avoid homogenization and keeping differences between the diversity of land use categories and the diversity of adjacencies small. Also, we recommend caution in using high contagion as the only criterion for land use planning, as its effects may vary on different ES targets.

Spatial Responses of Ecosystem Service Trade-offs and Synergies to Impact Factors in Liaoning Province.

Global ecosystem services (ESs) are experiencing a significant decline, necessitating the development of robust environmental governance policies. To address the lack of integrated planning with heavy industry as the research object and a lack of knowledge of ES trade-offs and synergies in China's ecological and environmental governance. In this study, the spatial and temporal variations of four ESs (water yield (WY), soil conservation (SC), carbon storage (CS), and habitat quality (HQ)) were determined in the study area of Liaoning Province. Explore the mechanisms that shape ecosystem service trade-offs and synergies and the factors that influence them. Spearman's correlation and difference analyses were proposed to determine the spatial and temporal distributions of trade-offs and synergistic relationships among ESs. In addition, we constructed a multiscale geo-weighted regression (MGWR) model to investigate driver spatial heterogeneity affecting trade-offs and synergies. The results revealed that (1) In the study area, ESs were on the rise in Liaoning Province. (2) Temporally, ESs were overwhelmingly dominated by synergies; at the spatial scale, ESs were dominated by trade-offs of varying degrees, with the area of synergy between WY and SC being the highest. (3) ESs demonstrated spatial heterogeneity in intensity and were more impacted by natural factors such as vegetation cover, elevation, and precipitation than by characteristics related to human activity. This study helps improve understanding of the interactions and dependencies among ESs and can provide a reference for ecological governance and improvements in Liaoning Province.

Identifying eco-functional zones on the Chinese Loess Plateau using ecosystem service bundles

Optimizing the function of ecosystem services (ESs) is vital for implementing regional ecological management strategies. In this study, we used multi-source data and integrated modelling methods to assess the spatiotemporal variations in eight typical ESs on the Chinese Loess Plateau from 2000 to 2015, including grain production, raw material provision, water conservation, carbon storage service, soil conservation, oxygen production, recreation, and net primary productivity (NPP) services. Then, we divided the ecosystem service bundles (ESBs) according to relationships among the eight ESs, obtaining four types of eco-functional areas at the county (city or banner or district) level based on the spatial clustering of similarities in different ES types. We also identified and assessed the contributions of influencing factors to these eco-functional areas using principal component analysis (PCA) across spatiotemporal scales. We found that the spatiotemporal variations in different ESs were noticeable, with an overall increase in grain production and soil conservation services, no significant change in carbon storage service, and overall decreases in raw material provision, water conservation, oxygen production, recreation, and NPP services. From 2000 to 2015, the number of significant synergistic ES pairs decreased, while that of significant trade-off pairs increased. To the changes of ESBs in the eco-functional areas, the results indicated that the indirect loss of these ESs from forest and grassland due to urban expansion should be reduced in ecological development area (ESB 2) and multi ecological functional area (ESB 3). Meanwhile, crop planting structures and planting densities should be adjusted to reduce ES trade-offs associated with water conservation service in grain-producing area (ESB 4). Lastly, ESB-based eco-functional zoning can be used to improve ecological restoration management strategies and optimize ecological compensation schemes in ecologically fragile area (ESB 1).

Synergies and trade-offs of ecosystem services affected by land use structures of small watershed in the Loess Plateau

The Chinese government has implemented a series of ecological restoration projects in the Loess Plateau (LP), and the surface cover changed dramatically, impacting the ecosystem services (ESs) greatly. In this study, we used K-means clustering to classify the land use structures (LUSs) of the LP from 1990 to 2015 at the small watershed scale, and investigated the effects of LUS on water supply (WS), soil conservation (SC), and carbon sequestration (CS, expressed as NPP) with constraint lines. The values of WS and SC were obtained from the InVEST simulation, validated by the hydrographic station data. The results showed that the LUSs in LP were cropland structure (CLS, distinguished with CS), forest structure (FS), grassland structure (GS), crop-grassland structure (CGS), crop-forest-grassland structure (CFGS) and a very few areas of barren structure (BS). The proportion of dominant land use in those LUSs with a balance of WS, SC, and CS was 0.6–0.7 (cropland in CLS), 0.5 (forest in FS), 0.45/0.4 (cropland/grassland in CGS), 0.75 to 0.85 (grassland in GS), and 0.15/0.4/0.25 to 0.35 (cropland/forest/grassland in CFGS), respectively. The types of constraint curves of ESs for those LUSs involves hump-shaped curve, negative convex, half-concave-waved curve and concave-waved curve. This study proposed a method to objectively delineate LUS and improved the constraint line method to make it suitable for cases with less data, innovatively presenting the variation of ESs inside LUSs, which may provide a reference for optimal land planning and sustainable development of social-ecological systems.

Ecological security warning in Central Asia: Integrating ecosystem services protection under SSPs-RCPs scenarios

Ecological security patterns (ESPs) are designed to enhance ecosystem structure and functionality while preserving vital ecosystem services (ESs). This study not only integrated the ES trade-offs related to ecological security warning, but also considered the effects of future climate changes and human activities on ESPs. By combining the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE), the revised wind erosion equation (RWEQ), the dry sedimentation (DS) model, the recreation opportunity map (ROM) and the integrated valuation of ESs and trade-offs (InVEST) model, this study projected provisioning services, regulation services and cultural services in Central Asia (CA) for historical periods (1995–2014) and future scenarios (2021–2099). An ecological security early-warning (source – corridor – barriers) framework was constructed based on the protection of ESs under the SSP126, SSP245 and SSP585 scenarios. The ordered weighted averaging method (OWA) was applied to this framework to identify ecological sources. The Minimum cumulative resistance model (MCR) and circuit theory were used to construct ecological corridors and barriers. Our results revealed that ES hotspot areas will decrease by 11.75 % to 16.42 % in CA under the SSP126, SSP245, and SSP585 scenarios. Under the ecological warning framework, the ecological source warning area will reach 792 km2–1942 km2 and 6591 km2–17,465 km2 under the SSP126 and SSP585 scenarios, respectively. In particular, in the 2050s under the SSP245 scenario, the number of key ecological corridor warnings will exceed 50 % of the total number of corridors. We found that ecological barrier warnings will mainly be distributed in desert areas with low vegetation coverage in southwestern CA. Building upon the reorganization of ESs within the ESP framework, we propose an ecological early warning strategy referred to as “one axis, two belts, two cores, and three zones”. This novel approach aims to enhance our ability to predict and respond to ecological threats and challenges.

Applying production-possibility frontier based ecosystem services trade-off to identify optimal scenarios of Grain-for-Green Program

The trade-off between grain production service (GP) and water purification service (WP) is widely acknowledged. Grain-for-Green Program (GFGP) is an effective way to alleviate ecosystem services (ESs) trade-offs and to achieve sustainable management of grain supply and water protection. However, how to identify the optimal GFGP scenario is worth further investigation. This study developed an index system for measuring ESs trade-offs, including the first-order derivative, synergy potential, and trade-off intensity based on the production-possibility frontier (PPF). Six GFGP scenarios were constructed and the non-linear trade-off between GP and WP under each scenario was evaluated. The results showed that in 2018 and six GFGP scenarios, the PPFs of the two ESs in the Dongting Lake Basin in Hunan Province showed a combination of convex-concave trade-offs. The synergy potential of GP and WP under the six scenarios increased by 2.52%~12.88%, while the trade-off intensity decreased by 6.54%~47.37% respectively, compared with the baseline of 2018. The Water Purification Priority Scenario of high-intensity was identified to be the optimal scenario with the highest synergy potential and lowest trade-off intensity, indicating that converting cropland with high nitrogen output into forest land under the condition of strict preservation of cropland could minimize the trade-off between GP and WP. This study proposed a PPF approach to identifying the optimal implementation of GFGP with the aim to realize collaborative guarantee of grain supply and water protection.

Scale-dependent responses of ecosystem service trade-offs to urbanization in Erhai Lake Basin, China.

Urbanization is an important factor affecting ecosystem services (ESs) and their trade-offs. However, little is known about the responses of ES trade-offs to urbanization at different scales. Here, the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs (InVEST) model was used to evaluate water yield (WY), water purification (WP), carbon storage (CS), and habitat quality (HQ) in Erhai Lake Basin using earth observation data, and the percentage of urban land (PUL), population density (POP), gross domestic product (GDP), and night light index (NLI) were used as urbanization indicators. We quantified the ES trade-offs using the root mean square error and analyzed spatiotemporal changes in urbanization indicators, ESs, and their trade-offs. Finally, we characterized the relationship between urbanization and ES trade-offs using correlation analysis and curve regression at the grid and town scales. From 2000 to 2020, values of PUL/GDP/NLI/POP were high in the south and low in the north; specifically, they were 15, 8, 2, and 0.42 times higher in the south than in the north, respectively. The urban expansion area in the Erhai Basin from 2000 to 2020 resulted in a 123.24% and 77.03% increase in WY and WP, respectively, and a 32.38% and 100% decrease in CS and HQ, respectively. The trade-offs between WY and CS and between WY and HQ increased, and other ES trade-offs decreased. Urbanization was significantly correlated with most ES trade-offs at the grid scale, but not at the town scale. There was a significant positive correlation between all urbanization indicators and the trade-off between CS and WP (p < 0.05), and the magnitude of the correlation increased with scale. The relationship between ES trade-offs and urbanization was mostly U-shaped and inverted U-shaped at the grid scale, but N-shaped and inverted N-shaped at the town scale. This study provides information that could be used for multi-scale urban planning.

Economic valuation of ecosystem services trade-offs of tilapia cage culture farm and native capture fisheries in Lake Maninjau, Indonesia

Research on the effects of cage aquaculture on native fish populations has revealed its negative and positive impacts. However, a separate analysis of its ecological and economic effects creates incomplete information for the decision-makers. Moreover, the inadequacy of time series data has caused challenges to knowledge-based decision-making in establishing new cage aquaculture sites, especially in low-middle income countries. We use the ecosystem services (ES) framework to analyse the synergy and trade-off of cage aquaculture to a native fish species, Gobiopterus sp. in Lake Maninjau, Indonesia, as an effort to provide comprehensive information to support local decision-makers and to fill the information gap. We engaged some modelling techniques such as the Maximum Entropy Model (MaxEnt) validated with field survey data, Bayesian Networks (BN), and Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) in this research. The results show that cage aquaculture provides habitat services for the species and temporary forgone fish production due to the accelerated sulfur upwelling. The economic value of habitat provision reached 74,500 IDR per year per cage or 1,128 million IDR per year in 2017. Further, the average value of the forgone benefit of fish production in the current cage aquaculture business extends from more than 550 million IDR per year in the dry season to almost 600 million IDR per year in the rainy season. The results indicate that the negative impacts of cage aquaculture on the native fish population outweigh its benefit. The recommendation for management actions includes applying alternative aquaculture techniques and other technological interventions.

Environmental land use conflicts and ecosystem services: a paper review

The topic of potential conflicts related to land use involving human activities in a watershed is an important matter to be discussed. The background of this research is that conditions in mountainous watersheds, and agricultural land use cause changes in ecosystem services, with trade-offs between crop production and erosion regulation. Watershed management with an environmental concept often faces problems with different interests among stakeholders. Although several studies have initiated the mapping of land-use conflicts between human activities and conservation, the spatial assessment of land-use conflicts on environmental issues and trade-offs of ecosystem services in agricultural areas has not been fully considered. The purpose of this study is to map land use, with indicators of measuring conflicts in the value of conservation and agricultural development, through scenarios of the level of erosion hazard on agricultural land. This study provides input to decision-makers regarding watershed conservation efforts that still consider aspects of the economic needs of agricultural land. The objective of the reviewers is to understand how the concept of mapping the potential conflict of land use in the Haean watershed in South Korea can be applied in Indonesia. The methodology used is to apply the agricultural land suitability index based on various analytical criteria to estimate the spatial preferences of agricultural activities. To predict erosion, using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) method and the classification of agricultural land in the watershed is divided into four levels of land use conflict (lowest, low, high, and highest).

Understanding the effects of socio-ecological factors on trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services to support urban sustainable management: A case study of Beijing, China

Understanding the complex impact of socio-ecological factors on ecosystem service trade-offs and synergies (EST/ESS) is critical in delivering multiple benefits to various stakeholders. However, the impact mechanism is poorly understood. To portray more clearly the actual changes in EST/ESS resulting from the configuration of socio-ecological factors in urban development, this study proposes a methodological framework to quantify EST/ESS for Beijing's zones and identify the mechanism by which EST/ESS interacts with socio-ecological factors. First, we quantified four key ecosystem services (ESs) that showed declining trends between 2000 and 2020. We then identified three landscape functional zones based on ES bundles and quantified EST/ESS intensity. Consistent with our prediction, there were significant differences of EST/ESS in ES pairs between zones, demonstrating the necessity of zoning management. We further applied structural equation modeling to analyze the mechanism of how socio-ecological factors influence EST/ESS. The pathways and intensities varied across regions, where vegetation cover and landscape configurations played mediating roles, whereas natural, physical, and biological factors, socioeconomic, and climatic factors, influenced EST/ESS mainly through indirect effects. Finally, based on the mechanism explored, we proposed strategies for zoning planning. These findings have practical implications for sustainable management in Beijing and other regions.

How are nature-based solutions contributing to the improvement of ecosystem quality in China: A systematic review

Nature-based solutions (NbS), an upgraded version of ecological restoration concept, has developed as an integrated approach to encompass a broad range of actions that protect, restore, or sustainably manage ecosystems to provide benefits to people. However, it is challenging to obtain a thorough understanding of the effectiveness of NbS because of the uncertainty of the assessment in different regions based on ecosystem services. Here, we conduct a synthesis analysis of the effects of ecological interventions on ecosystem quality within China. We systematically analyze 76 studies selected from 275 peer-reviewed papers, which were undertaken at regional scale and published between 2011 and 2022. Average values of ecosystem services before and after the ecological interventions are extracted to quantify the ecosystem changes. Results show that ecological restoration purposefully contributes to the improvements of ecosystem services with an increase in Net Primary Productivity (NPP) of 31% and an increase in soil conservation (SC) of 21%. Effects on water yield (WY), carbon storage (CS) and habitat quality (HQ) are all not significant. Restoration interventions have a mixed effect on ecosystem service trade-offs which may vary by regions. Trade-offs primarily exist between WY and other ecosystem services on the Northeastern Forest Belt and the Southwestern Karst, while synergies mainly exist among NPP, SC and CS on the Loess Plateau and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Moreover, utilizing grey correlation analysis methods, factor analysis reveals that temperature and precipitation are highly correlated with the changes of the five ecosystem services. Natural factors contribute more to the changes of NPP, SC and WY than the human factors. This research is aimed at obtaining an overall perception of the effectiveness of ecological restoration programmes implementation in different regions across China, which will provide references for reducing ecosystem services trade-offs and adjusting the layouts of regional ecological restoration programmes.

Temporal and spatial evolution of ecosystem service value in Ili Valley and its driving factors

Ili Valley is an important ecological barrier in western China and an important economic zone of the Belt and Road Initiative. Exploring the driving factors of ecosystem service value (ESV) based on land use change is of great significance for optimizing regional ecological environment and coordinating human-land relationship. Based on three periods of land use data from 2000 to 2020 in Yili Valley, we used ArcGIS 10.8 and Origin to analyze the characteristics of land use change, temporal and spatial variations of ESV, and the synergy and trade-offs of ecosystem services, and explored the driving factors affecting the spatial differentiation of ESV and the interaction among factors by using Geo-Detector. The results showed that land use change in the study area was obvious from 2000 to 2020, with the area of grassland and water area being greatly reduced and the largest increase for the area of construction land. The ESV of grassland and water area and the service function of water resource supply decreased significantly. ESV high value areas were transformed to low value areas. Synergy was the dominant relationship among ecosystem services in the study area, which showed an increasing trend. Elevation was the main driving factor of ESV spatial differentiation in Yili Valley, and the low elevation plain area suitable for human activities on both sides of the basin was the low ESV value area. The interaction between all factors was manifested as enhanced relationship, while the explanatory power of natural factors was higher than that of social and economic factors.

Conflicts among ecosystem services may depend on environmental awareness: a multi-municipality analysis

Abstract Timber and non-timber ecosystem services (ESs) of forests can have trade-offs. These trade-offs are often influenced by local characteristics, and a higher awareness of local ESs among the location population could support forest management to supply ESs sustainably. This study examines trade-offs among timber and non-timber ESs in three adjacent municipalities in Japan where social contexts differ and discusses them in relation to the environmental awareness of each community. First, we explored the local awareness of the population of ESs in interviews. Then we produced maps of landslide prevention, sediment retention, and forest recreation ESs in plantations at 30-m resolution and classified forests according to evaluations of each ES. We overlaid the ES maps with a map of logging locations from the previous 5 years to calculate the logged ratio for each ES class. In a region with a long history of forestry, where awareness of ESs seems to be high, forests providing a wider range of ESs had a lower logged ratio than forests with lower ESs. In contrast, in a region in which contracted foresters from outside of that region were coordinating logging activities, even forests providing numerous ES had a high logged ratio. Thus, increasing awareness of ESs amongst the local population may lead to a more balanced use of ESs. Our results indicate that local governments would be best placed to raise awareness by educating forest enterprises or providing science-based information on ESs to foresters. We conclude that analyses of local ES trade-offs under consideration of the social context as presented here, is the first step towards developing and maintaining sustainable forest management principles.

Optimizing Management of the Qinling–Daba Mountain Area Based on Multi-Scale Ecosystem Service Supply and Demand

Accurately identifying the supply and demand of ecosystem services at multiple scales and determining the factors that influence the supply–demand relationship are crucial for guiding the sustainable management and restoration of regional ecosystem services. In view of this, we quantified the supply and demand of five ecosystem services at multiple scales in the Qinling–Daba Mountain area based on spatial and statistical data, exploring the relationships between the supply and demand for ecosystem services at multiple scales and examining the mechanisms by which factors like natural and human activities affect the evolution of the supply and demand patterns of these services. The results show that (1) there was no risk associated with supply and demand of ESs in the Qinling–Daba Mountain area, and numerous ESs were in excess. The impact of ES supply and demand became increasingly clear as the spatial scale was increased. (2) Under multiple spatial scales, the relationship between the supply and demand of ESs will change. At the mesoscale, the relationship between ES supply and demand was the most significant, whereas at the macroscale, the relationship between ES demands was the most significant. (3) Cultivated land, grass land, and forest land are the key land use categories in regional ecosystem service hotspots, providing richer ecosystem service functions for the region. (4) Precipitation and NDVI are the main elements determining the supply of ecosystem services. While GDP and population density have a significant impact on the demand for ecosystem services, natural causes are primarily responsible for trade-offs in ecosystem services. This study aims to evaluate the supply–demand relationship and driving factors of multiple scale in the Qinling–Daba Mountains, providing a scientific basis for the sustainable management of ecosystems in the region.