Ecosystem service value of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau significantly increased during 25 years

Wei Jiang, Yihe Lü, Yuanxin Liu and Wenwen Gao

Ecosystem Services, 2020, vol. 44, issue C

Abstract: As a highly valuable region that provides multiple important ecosystem services, the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is vulnerable to climate change and human activities, which have induced significant land cover changes from 1990 to 2015. However, the impact of these changes on the ecosystem service values in the 25 years remains unknown. In this study, we used the combined approach of land cover proxy and unit value transfer method to assess changes in ecosystem service values. The results showed that total ecosystem service values including provisioning, regulating, habitat and cultural services has increased from ca. 1.77 trillion in 1990 to ca. 1.81 trillion US dollars in 2015, mainly due to the considerable expansion of rivers and lakes and a decrease of bare lands and glacier and snow. Although the elasticity analysis found that the response of ESV changes is not that elastic to LULC changes in three periods, 1990–2000, 2000–2010 and 2010–2015, it can still be used as a detector to locate unusual changes in different regions and to indicate urgent need for specific ecosystem management.

Keywords: Land use/land cover; Benefit transfer; Ecosystem service valuation; Elasticity; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoser:v:44:y:2020:i:c:s2212041620300887

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2020.101146

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