Exploring cost-effective measure portfolios for ecosystem services optimization under large-scale vegetation restoration

Identifying carbon sequestration's priority supply areas from the standpoint of ecosystem service flow: A case study for Northwestern China's Shiyang River Basin

Finding important supply areas helps maintain the ecological security of the region and promotes the creation of healthy ecosystems. By considering the ecosystem service flows (ESF), priority provisioning area studies can be approached from a new perspective. This study describes the real supply in terms of flows. The goal was to reveal the priority-ranked supply pattern of ecosystem carbon sequestration services (ECSS) in the Shiyang River Basin (SRB). First and foremost, soil respiration models and Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach (CASA) model were used to examine the supply of ECSS, and a combination of natural and human factors was used to determine the demand for ECSS. Second, Python was used to illustrate the ECSS flow trajectories and flows. Lastly, and utilized in conjunction with System Conservation Planning (SCP) to determine supply regions of importance. The results show that, first, the spatial distribution of ECSS supply and demand clearly demonstrates heterogeneity. This is reflected in the spatial characteristics of supply, which are "high in the south and low in the north," and demand, which is "high in the urban areas and low in the suburbs." Second, the middle and lower portions of the basin, where there is little precipitation and little vegetation, are home to the majority of the locations with poor carbon sequestration fluxes. These areas accounted for almost 60 % of the entire watershed area over time. Third, the first priority area of ECSS occupies 19.3 % of the basin's total area, while the second priority area occupies 21.46 %. For the major supply regions, strict ecological protection laws must be implemented going forward in order to ensure the ability to sustain ECSS supply. The long-term growth of SRB as well as ecological and environmental management can benefit from this research's foundational role in policymaking.

Water-related ecosystem services interactions and their natural-human activity drivers: Implications for ecological protection and restoration

Sustainable development faces the crucial challenge of safeguarding water-related ecosystem services, particularly in arid regions. However, scale-dependent interactions and their influencing factors remain unclear. This study addresses this local gap on the regional level by focusing on ecologically vulnerable mountain areas, employing a comprehensive quantitative and spatial analysis approach, utilizing Spearman coefficient, trade-off/synergy index, and trade-off/synergy criterion, to examine water-related ecosystem services interactions across scales in arid area. Additionally, a Geographical detector was used to identify dominant natural and human activity factors. Finally, we determined ecologically optimal and worst areas and proposed spatial planning and management recommendations for ecological protection and restoration. Key results indicate that: (1) From 1995 to 2015, water yield and nutrient delivery ratio exhibited a declining trend, while soil retention showed an increasing trend, with the weakest nutrient delivery ratio function in the reserve. (2) At the grid scale, there were 2 trade-offs among water-related ecosystem services in 1995, which decreased to 1 trade-off in 2005 and 2015. The synergistic was most prominent near Qinghai Lake, while the trade-off was most obvious in the western mountainous areas. Conversely, the county scale demonstrated synergy. (3) NDVI, slope, and precipitation dominantly influence the spatial heterogeneity patterns of soil retention_water yield, soil retention_nutrient delivery ratio, and water yield_nutrient delivery ratio, respectively, with natural factors outweighing human activities in impacting water-related ecosystem services. This study contributes to the improvement and optimization of ecological environment management decisions.