Quantitative Assessment for the Dynamics of the Main Ecosystem Services and their Interactions in the Northwestern Arid Area, China

Tingting Kang, Shuai Yang, Jingyi Bu, Jiahao Chen and Yanchun Gao
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Tingting Kang: Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 9719, Beijing 100101, China
Shuai Yang: Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 9719, Beijing 100101, China
Jingyi Bu: Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 9719, Beijing 100101, China
Jiahao Chen: Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 9719, Beijing 100101, China
Yanchun Gao: Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 9719, Beijing 100101, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-17

Abstract: Evaluating changes in the spatial–temporal patterns of ecosystem services (ESs) and their interrelationships provide an opportunity to understand the links among them, as well as to inform ecosystem-service-based decision making and governance. To research the development trajectory of ecosystem services over time and space in the northwestern arid area of China, three main ecosystem services (carbon sequestration, soil retention, and sand fixation) and their relationships were analyzed using Pearson’s coefficient and a time-lagged cross-correlation analysis based on the mountain–oasis–desert zonal scale. The results of this study were as follows: (1) The carbon sequestration of most subregions improved, and that of the oasis continuously increased from 1990 to 2015. Sand fixation decreased in the whole region except for in the Alxa Plateau–Hexi Corridor area, which experienced an “increase–decrease” trend before 2000 and after 2000; (2) the synergies and trade-off relationships of the ES pairs varied with time and space, but carbon sequestration and soil retention in the most arid area had a synergistic relationship, and most oases retained their synergies between carbon sequestration and sand fixation over time. Most regional relationships of sand fixation and soil retention with a weak trade-off during the before-2000 stage turned into weak synergies at the after-2000 stage; (3) the ES pairs of carbon sequestration and sand fixation had significant time-lagged trade-off relationships in most arid areas, and these time trade-offs were generally maintained for 2–6 years, where a higher absolute value of the maximum time-lagged correlation coefficient corresponded to a longer time-lag. This study could assist us in understanding the trade-off and synergy of ESs and will provide quantitative zonal information for the ecosystem-services-based ecomanagement of arid areas.

Keywords: ecosystem services; trade-off and synergy; time-lagged correlation; mountain–oasis–desert; arid area (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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