How much do we know about trade-offs in ecosystem services? A systematic review of empirical research observations

Does increasing forest age lead to greater trade-offs in ecosystem services? A study of a Robinia pseudoacacia artificial forest on the Loess Plateau, China

Artificial forest ecosystems offer various ecosystem services (ES) and help mitigate climate change effects. Trade-offs or synergies exist among ES in artificial forests. Although forest age influences ES and ecosystem processes, the long-term dynamics of trade-offs among ES in artificial forests and during vegetation restorations remain unclear, complicating vegetation and sustainable management. We studied a Robinia pseudoacacia plantation on the Loess Plateau, China, with a restoration time of 10-44 years. The entropy weight method was used to assess five ES (carbon sequestration, water conservation, soil conservation, understory plant diversity, and runoff and sediment reduction) and investigate how ES change with forest age. The root mean square deviation (RMSD) was used to quantify the trade-offs among ES, and redundancy analysis (RDA) analysis was used to identify the key factors influencing the ES and trade-offs. The results showed that (1) as forest age increased, ES scores initially increased and then decreased. The optimal range for ES values was observed during the middle-aged to mature stages of the forest. (2) Before reaching maturity, the planted forests primarily delivered services related to water conservation and runoff and sediment reduction. (3) In young forests, ES showed a synergistic relationship (RMSD = 0.06), whereas trade-offs occurred in forests at other ages. The largest trade-off was observed in middle-aged forests. (4) The ES pairs with the dominant trade-offs in planted forests differed at different forest age stages. The largest trade-off occurred between carbon sequestration and water conservation (RMSD = 0.28). RDA analysis showed that understory vegetation coverage had a positive correlation with all ES. The ES indicators that significantly (P < 0.001) affected the water‑carbon trade-off were tree carbon storage, soil organic carbon storage, soil total nitrogen, and soil total phosphorus. Thus, the water and carbon relationship must be balanced, and the key factors affecting ES trade-offs in forest management must be regulated to support ES multifunctionality.

Relationships between soil ecosystem services in temperate annual field crops: A systematic review

Agricultural soils provide multiple ecosystem services (ES) that can replace chemical inputs to support agricultural production. However, most arable cropping systems are managed with little concern for preserving ecological functions, which could reduce their ability to provide these ES. An increasing number of studies assess ES from agroecosystems, but analysis of multiple ES distinguishing relationships that may exist between them and between these ES and their drivers is lacking. Thus, we performed a systematic literature review of soil-based ES relationships, with a focus on temperate annual field crops. Forty relevant studies out of 870 were selected for the analysis. We created an original ontology of soil-based ES, based on the indicators used to assess them, to which we added soil-based negative impacts and biomass production (defined as a good) to combine the ES approach and the impact approach. We summarized each positive (synergy), negative (trade-off) or non-significant relationship in these studies, which were either quantitative or qualitative. We highlighted key relationships that have never been investigated in the corpus selected, such as relationships between C sequestration and physical soil quality regulation, soil erosion regulation or soil biodiversity. Relationships between biomass production and soil-based ES or impacts were investigated the most and were mainly non-significant. This suggests there are agroecological practices for which maximizing bundles of ES does not always decrease agricultural production. Relationships between soil biodiversity and soil-based ES were exclusively synergistic or non-significant. Summarizing effects of drivers of these relationships revealed that the three pillars of conservation agriculture - rotation diversification (with ley or legumes), soil coverage with cover crops and reduced tillage - and organic fertilization seem promising practices to help provide balanced bundles of ES and potentially reduce negative agronomic impacts. We highlighted potential trade-offs that should be consciously considered when adapting management strategies.

Integrating ecosystem services closely related to human well-being into the restoration and management of deep lakes facing multiple stressors: Lessons from long-term practice in Qiandao Lake, China

Deep-lake (reservoir) ecosystems provide valuable ecosystem services (ES) and generate significant ecosystem service values (ESV); however, reservoir ecosystems have suffered great losses from environmental changes and human activities. Currently, studies on ES and its correlations with stressors remain insufficient and the integration of ES into ecological restoration and management poses numerous challenges. Here, we combined four types of stressors with six ES closely related to human well-being to discuss their interactions in Qiandao Lake (a representative deep lake in China). Our results indicate that all ESV showed a consistent growth trend throughout the study period, reaching 5203.8 million CNY in 2018, and the cultural service value surpassed the provisioning service value for the first time in 2004. Almost all the ESV were limited during the cyanobacterial bloom in Qiandao Lake. Redundancy analysis and partial least squares structural equation modeling jointly revealed that socioeconomic development was the most important direct driver of the increase in ESV (0.770) and that hydro-meteorological conditions (0.316) and pollutant loads (0.274) positively affected ESV by mediating lake trophic status. The trophic status of the lake is the result of the interaction of multiple stressors, which has a negative impact on ESV. Therefore, to continuously protect the provisioning and cultural service values of deep-lake ecosystems from damage, the government must rationally formulate SED goals and reduce pollutant loads during lake development, operation, and utilization. This work provides valuable insights into the interactions between ES, which are closely related to human well-being, and stressors in deep-lake ecosystems.

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.

Incorporating ecosystem services into functional zoning and adaptive management of natural protected areas as case study of the Shennongjia region in China

Against the background of global climate change and anthropogenic interference, studying the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of ecosystem services in important ecological function regions and rationally dividing the functional zones will help to promote the construction of the natural protected areas system dominated by national parks. The Shennongjia Region is an important candidate for China's national parks and one of the key pilots. Integrating the InVEST model, Getis-Ord Gi* index, hotspot analysis, GeoDetector and K-means clustering algorithm, we measured five ecosystem services interactions and delineate the functional zones. The results show that the spatial and temporal evolution of various ecosystem services in the Shennongjia Region between 2000 and 2020 was significant. All ecosystem services showed a decreasing and then increasing trend, except for carbon storage, which slowly declined. The ecological status of the region is in the process of polarization, with the local environment showed a trend of continuous deterioration. Water yield-habitat quality and carbon storage-water purification showed synergistic relationships; soil conservation showed trade-offs with water yield, carbon storage and water purification over a wide spatial range. The interaction between land surface temperature and vegetation cover was the most significant dominant factor. Hot spots for the comprehensive ecosystem services index were mainly located in the central and southern parts of the Shennongjia region and four types of ecosystem service functional zones were identified accordingly. This study is of great significance for maximizing the benefits of ecosystem service functions, the efficient allocation of environmental resources and the rational formulation of management policies in natural protected areas.

Preference, perceived change, and professed relationship among ecosystem services in the Himalayas

The demand side of ecosystem service (ES), especially preference and perception of supply and interactions among ES, is an important yet underexplored research area for landscape planning and management in human-dominated landscapes. Taking a case of multifunctional landscape in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan region, we carried out a social survey of ES, focusing on preference, perceived change, and observed relationship among six major ES from the local people's perspective. Using a semi-structured questionnaire, data collection was done from 300 households from 10 categories of human settlements, based on watershed and land cover types. Garrett mean score (GMS), ordinal logistic regression estimates, and Chi-square test were performed for quantitative data, while an inductive approach was adopted for qualitative data analysis. The results show that at the landscape level, local people preferred water yield (GMS = 70) and crop production (GMS = 66) as the most preferred ES, whereas habitat quality (GMS = 37) and carbon sequestration (GMS = 35) were among the least preferred ES. More than 70% of the respondents believed that the supply of crop production has decreased over the last two decades; however, the supply of other provisioning and non-provisioning ES has increased as observed by majority of the respondents. Among the 15 pairs of ES, local people believe that co-occurrence of ES is possible. Majority of the respondents said that there exist synergistic relationship among 13 pairs of ES, except crop production which is negatively related with timber production and carbon sequestration. Among the identified trade-offs in ES, majority of local people believed that direct trade-offs (i.e., linear inverse relationship) is dominant as observed in 8 pairs of ES, followed by concave and convex trade-offs. Based on our analysis, we argue that the preference and perceived change of ES is more dependent on spatial heterogeneity of communities (i.e., watershed type, municipal category, and land cover type of residence) than socio-economic determinants. Further, we have discussed and suggested few policy and management measures including place-based spatial assessment of the social demand and preference, embracing agroforestry practices in ecosystem management programs, mainstreaming non-local ES in local decision making by incentives, and optimizing the supply of desired ES though integrated biophysical and socio-economic assessment of the landscape.

Reducing agricultural nitrous oxide emissions in China: the role of food production, forest cover, income, trade openness, and rural population

In the light of China's carbon-neutral goal, this study examines how food production, forest cover, trade openness, and rural population contribute to the quest of addressing China's agricultural nitrous oxide emissions. Time series data ranging from 1971 to 2018 was used for analysis in this study. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) technique was employed to evaluate potential cointegration as well as to ascertain the long and short-run effects of food production, forest cover, income, trade openness, and rural population on agricultural nitrous oxide emission. The Toda-Yamomoto causality analysis was also used to identify the causal relations between covariates (food production, forest cover, income, trade openness, and rural population) and the outcome variable (agricultural nitrous oxide emission). The long-run evidence is that rural population in itself tends to increase agricultural nitrous oxide emissions likewise food production. There is also validation of the existence of environmental Kuznets curve for agricultural nitrous oxide emissions. Moreover, income interacts with rural population to reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions in the long-run. Causality analysis indicated rural population affects the level of forest cover; forest cover is found to cause agricultural nitrous oxide emissions but the converse is not established, and income as well as the interaction between income and rural population determines agricultural nitrous oxide emissions. The short-run dynamics results establish an oscillatory equilibrium convergence for agricultural nitrous oxide emissions in event of structural disturbances. From the findings, the EKC hypothesis is relevant by offering avenue to reduce emission. Thus, income growth remains helpful in addressing nitrous oxide emission from the agricultural sector. However, research is needed to unravel why nitrous oxide tends to increase in many forest areas. Since food production cannot be halted, policy makers need to enhance the uptake of efficient food production technologies including developing and using more renewable energy for food production. It is important for authorities to attend to rural development in order to mitigate agricultural nitrous oxide emissions in China.

Spatiotemporal variations and tradeoff-synergy relations of ecosystem services under ecological water replenishment in Baiyangdian Lake, North China

Understanding dynamic variations of ecosystem services (ESs) and their tradeoff-synergy relations under ecological water replenishment (EWR) is conducive to the formulation of effective eco-environmental management strategies. In this study, spatiotemporal variations of three leading ESs, namely habitat quality, carbon storage and water yield services influenced by EWR in Baiyangdian Lake, North China from 1991 to 2019, were investigated using the "Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs" (InVEST) model, and their tradeoff-synergy relations were quantitatively assessed with correlation analysis methods. Our results showed that habitat quality had continuously declined, whereas it got a steady improvement after the year of 2015. Total carbon storage was relatively stable, and the volume of total water yield and precipitation showed the same variation trend. Overall, EWR promoted the maintenance and improvement of ESs. Tradeoff-synergy relations among ESs varied with time and space. Temporally, there was an obvious synergistic relation between habitat quality and carbon storage services. Spatially, these two ESs were synergistic in the southern, central and eastern parts of the lake, while they had a tradeoff relation in the north; and there were no tradeoff-synergy relations between the water yield service and these two services. This study confirmed the importance of zoning management and comprehensive multi-factor management based on spatial and temporal differences of ESs, and can offer a scientific basis for adaptive eco-environmental management strategies for wetland restoration.

Understanding local ecosystem dynamics in three provinces of the lowlands of Nepal

Incidences of failure of sustainable ecosystem management policies, especially in the developing world are partly attributable due to a lack of political will and inadequate understanding of ecosystem dynamics (ED) at the local levels. In this study, we endeavor to comprehend the dynamics of two ecosystems - forest and agriculture - by employing a resource-friendly participatory approach based on stake-taking the experiences of indigenous and forest-dependent local stakeholders in three lowland provinces of Nepal and is guided by the theory of socio-ecological concept. An in-depth survey (n = 136) was conducted using semi-structured questionnaires, key informant interviews (n = 9), and focus group discussions (n = 4) for data generation, and generalized linear models were used to test whether understanding of ED is uniform across the socio-ecological landscape. We identified that various attributes of forests and agricultural ecosystems have altered substantially earlier than 30 years (hereafter, earlier decade) relative to the present (hereafter, later decade). Apart from the natural processes including anthropogenic and climatic factors, technological innovations played a significant role in altering ecosystems in the later decade. Understanding of ED among forest-dependent stakeholders significantly varied with respect to gender, occupation, age group, gender-based water fetching responsibility, and water-fetching duration, however, no significant correlation was observed with their level of education across the landscape. The studied ecosystem attributes significantly correlate with water regime changes, signifying that water-centric ecosystem management is crucial. The attributes that observed significant dynamics in the forest ecosystem include changes in forest cover, structure and species composition, the severity of invasive species, wildfires, water regimes, and abundance and behavioral changes in mammals and avifauna. The alteration of crop cultivation and harvesting season which results in a decrease in yield, increased use of chemicals (fertilizers and pesticides), an increase in fallow land, and the proliferation of hybrid variety cultivation in the later decade are significant disparities in the dynamics of the agriculture ecosystem. To withstand the accelerated ED, stakeholders adopt various strategies, however, these strategies are either obtained from unsustainable sources entail high costs and technology, or are detrimental to the ecosystems. In relation, we present specific examples of ecosystem attributes that have significantly experienced changes in the later decade compared to the earlier decades along with plausible future pathways for policy decisions sustaining and stewardship of dynamic ecosystems across the socio-ecological landscape.

Refined revealing the chain path of multiple ecosystem services under diverse environmental factor gradients

A fragile karst ecosystem presents ecosystem services affected by the environment and interactions between ecosystem services. However, the ecosystem in the karst area is characterized by low environmental capacity and low resistance to force disturbance. Current research mainly focuses on the trade-off/synergy of ecosystem services in the karst area yet it lacks inductive analysis of the multiple chain path among ecosystem services. This paper quantitatively identified dominant factors influencing spatial differentiation of surface runoff, soil moisture, sediment yield, and net primary productivity (NPP) and determined the chain path. The chain paths of surface runoff-soil moisture-NPP and NPP-surface runoff-sediment yield were analyzed. The results showed that land use and soil type were the dominant factors, and chain effects of ecosystem services were diverse under the various dominant factor gradients. The mediation effects of paddy soil (97.21 %) and mountain meadow soil (55.56 %) were high, and surface runoff had a greater impact on NPP by affecting soil moisture. Among the diverse land use types, the mediation effect of surface runoff on NPP affecting sediment yield varied greatly (from 5 to 100 %). In addition, its variation trend was consistent with that of the soil moisture as the mediation variable. The mediation effect of surface runoff on construction land was the highest (99.43 %). This study provides the scientific basis for selecting more effective water and soil conservation measures by analyzing the chain relationships of multiple ecosystem services under different environmental factor gradients.

Transforming agroforestry in contested landscapes: A win-win solution to trade-offs in ecosystem services in Nepal

Trade-offs in ecosystem services (ES) is increasingly becoming a pressing issue in sustainability science, to deal with supply constraints of landscape and divergence in demand from local and global stakeholders. Agroforestry is a well acknowledged and established management practice to minimize the trade-offs, and to sustainably manage the contested landscapes while satisfying the growing demands of both local and global ecosystem beneficiaries. However, various facets of agroforestry, its management modality, institutional arrangements, and implementation outcomes are inadequately understood. This paper aims to scrutinize major agroforestry practices through the methods of systematic review of literature, government policies, and project reports. Taking a case of Nepal, this paper presents agroforestry transition from forest-based agroforestry (i.e., shifting cultivation) to farm-based integrated approach to agroforestry in Nepal. This paper reveals that integrated agro-forestry approach is crucial in creating win-win scenarios among various stakeholders by minimizing trade-offs and maximizing synergies among ES, especially food, fibre, and other ES (i.e., biodiversity, soil functioning, water, and climate regulation). Analysing socio-economic, ecological, and institutional factors that are affecting agroforestry for the last fifty years, we further suggest an integrated model of agroforestry which is replicable in other countries with similar socio-economic status, practicing subsistence farming system. The findings of the paper are crucial in awakening scholars, policy makers and landscape managers for up-scaling and out-scaling of integrated approach to agroforestry for ecosystem management and attainment of various sustainable development goals such as, no poverty (#1), zero hunger (#2), climate action (#13), and life on land (#15).

A spatialized assessment of ecosystem service relationships in a multifunctional agroforestry landscape of Senegal

Agroforestry systems are an integral part of Sub-Saharan agricultural landscapes. Studies conducted at tree or plot scales on the supply of ecosystem services (ES) suggest that agroforestry practices are a promising way to build multifunctional agricultural landscapes. However, the current characterization and understanding of how multiple ES are associated across such heterogeneous agricultural landscapes are still limited. This study provides the first characterization of the multiple ESs supplied by a Sahelian Faidherbia albida agroforestry parkland and their relationships. Relying on field data for 11 ES indicators, recent advances in remote sensing-derived information, and blending different ES mapping approaches, we first assessed the spatial heterogeneity of the supply of each ES. We found that the majority of ES indicators remained below ES potential values over the study area by 25 % to 50 %, revealing that there is a considerable scope for increasing the ES supply in the F. albida parkland. Then, using a scoring approach, we analyzed the supply of multiple ESs. We observed a large number of hotspots and a clear effect of the proximity of F. albida trees fostering the supply of multiple ESs in their vicinity. Finally, we mapped and analyzed the dominant relationships - trade-offs, synergies or losses - between ESs from a cooccurrence spatial approach. We showed that significant trade-offs and losses (58 % of the area) between ESs can exist in the F. albida parkland. Interestingly, we also showed that synergies occurred mainly up to 10 m from the F. albida trees, suggesting that synergies need to be increased beyond this threshold. By adopting an original ES valuation framework, we provided basic insights into ESs and their relationships. The different maps and information generated can support public debates and target new policies fostering the multifunctionality of F. albida parklands as well as in various other parklands of West Africa.

A review of agroforestry ecosystem services and its enlightenment on the ecosystem improvement of rocky desertification control

Agroforestry (AF) has become an important strategy in reconciling the contradictory requirements of environmental protection and economic development in ecologically fragile areas, and whose multiple ecosystem services provide effective ways to promote the restoration of degraded ecosystems in the region. However, agroforestry ecosystem services (AFES) are usually constrained by their generative elements (vulnerability, structure, function, and ecological assets) and service management-both crucial for informed decision-making which enhances AFES supply capacity and AF sustainable management. Karst rocky desertification (KRD) is a typical case in an ecologically fragile area, and within the KRD region greatly relevant for promoting AFES as a strategy for restoring degraded regional ecosystems and for achieving sustainable development goals. In this study, a total of 164 publications related to AFES that met a set of inclusion criteria were obtained through the Scopus database using the literature review method of searching, appraisal, synthesis, and analysis. From the systematic literature review results, (i) we found that the number of relevant publications generally exhibited a year-on-year growth trend, with AFES generation elements being the most common topic (68.11 % of publications), and service management research being the second most common (31.89 % of publications); (ii) we summarised the main progress and landmark results of AFES generation elements and service management research and explored the relevant key scientific questions; and (iii) the above information enlightened the key improvement areas of KRD control ecosystem within three aspects: natural environment, agricultural development, and human-environment relationship. This study provides agroforestry practitioners and relevant decision-makers with information for improving and managing the supply capacity of AFES, and also presents important insights on the KRD control ecosystem to land degradation restoration technicians.

Identifying ecosystem service value and potential loss of wilderness areas in China to support post-2020 global biodiversity conservation

Preserving wilderness areas is one of the key goals in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework(GBF). However, far too little attention has been paid to identifying wilderness conservation priorities on the national scale. In this study, we developed a methodological framework to evaluate the ecosystem service values, potential loss and conservation priorities of wilderness areas in China, providing guidance for wilderness conservation. First, we assessed the conservation value of wilderness areas and found that wilderness areas provided more ecosystem services than non-wilderness areas per unit area in most ecoregions. Then we identified threatened wilderness areas under multiple scenarios due to land use and land cover change. We found that 5.82 % of the existing wilderness areas were projected to be lost by 2100. Finally, wilderness conservation priorities were identified considering both conservation values and potential loss, and 11.24 % of existing wilderness areas were highlighted as conservation priorities. This methodological framework could be applied to other countries to support post-2020 global biodiversity conservation.

Impact of COVID-19 in the forestry sector: A case of lowland region of Nepal

All walks of life have been affected by COVID-19 but smallholders from developing countries have been impacted more than others as they are heavily reliant on forest and agriculture for their livelihoods and have limited capacity to deal with COVID-19. Scholars are heavily engaged in assessing the impacts of COVID-19 on health and wellbeing, gender, food production and supply, stock market and the overall economy but not on the forestry sector. Using questionnaire surveys and key informant interviews-informed by grey literature and published articles- representing Division Forest Offices, Provincial Forest Directorates, and the Ministry of Forests and Environment in Nepal, this study assessed the impact of COVID-19 on the forestry sector of Nepal. Our analysis suggests that: (1) nature-based tourism is more severely affected than other sectors; (2) private, religious and leasehold forests faced minimal impacts of COVID-19 than that of community and government-managed forests; (3) wild boar (Sus scrofa), different species of deer, and birds have been more impacted than other wild animals; (4) the price of the timber has increased significantly whereas the price of non-timber forests products (NTFPs) has decreased; and (5) illegal logging and poaching have increased but the incidence of forest encroachment has been reduced. Our study further reveals that agroforestry practices in home gardens, borrowing money from neighbors/banks/landlords and liquidating livestock remained key alternatives for smallholders during COVID-19. Many studies reported that reverse migration could create chaos in Nepal, but our study suggests that it may enhance rural innovation and productivity, as returnees may use their acquired knowledge and skills to develop new opportunities. As COVID-19 has created a war-like situation worldwide, Nepal should come up with a forward-looking fiscal response with alternative income generation packages to local living to counter the impacts of COVID-19 on the forestry sector. One of the options could be implementing similar programs to that of India's US$ 800 Compensatory Afforestation Program and Pakistan's 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Program, which will create a win-win situation, i.e., generate employment for reverse migrants and promotes forest restoration.

Assay of renewable energy transition: A systematic literature review

Issues of environmental degradation, finite quantity and uneven spatial distribution of fuels in nature, and growing demand accentuated by volatility of oil prices have led to the global clean renewable energy transition (RET). With an objective of examining the current knowledge-stock on RET, we reviewed 248 journal publications pooled from three databases (ScienceDirect, Web of Science and Scopus) using a Systematic Literature Review method. This study does not focus on the specifications of a particular energy technology or regress relations among a limited set of variables. Rather, the key contribution is the critical assessment of the factors that encourage and those that hinder the transition process to provide a wider perspective through seven broad lenses: technological, investment, market, environmental, government and institutional, policy and social. Research, development and implementation of technology is a direct outcome of policy investment. Developed countries are leading the RET research while the global south is far behind. Most of the studies were found to be donor-driven which faced a serious risk of being counter-welcomed in different settings of the world without compromising the objectives of the transition. A strong international collaboration among the rich and poor countries is urgently felt necessary to foster mutual benefits. Research, planning and implementation of the RET would be highly effective and sustainable through a participatory bottom-up approach promoting local technology instead of imposed expensive imported ones. The need for "demand-pull" and "technology-push" policy instruments is stringent for successful transition. We conclude that there is a unanimous agreement among all the studies on the future prospects of renewable energy in the electricity sector; however, some skepticism still exists regarding other high energy demanding areas. Our review recommends updating existing and designing new robust policy mixes to guide the modality and pace of the RET, adhering to local specificities.

Integrating Landscape Pattern into Characterising and Optimising Ecosystem Services for Regional Sustainable Development

Humans benefit from ecosystem services (ES) and profoundly influence the ecosystem in rapid urbanisation and large-scale urban sprawl contexts, especially at the landscape level. However, the impacts of landscape pattern, the driving mechanism of sub-ES and the spatially explicit regional optimisation, have been largely ignored. In response, to the present paper explores two primary aspects: the relationship among ES, landscape pattern, urban income and agricultural output, and the regional governance of optimised ES values (ESV), using the Wuhan urban agglomeration as a case study area. The survey method is employed in obtaining the adjusted magnitude matrix of land use and ecosystem services. Spatial regression analyses are conducted on each ES, including food provision, climate regulation and soil maintenance, with socio-economic indicators and landscape pattern index as explanatory variables. Finally, geographically weighted regression and scenario analyses are conducted on each sub-ESV to generate adjusted coefficients in each county for ESV regulation. The results show that urban per capita disposable income and agricultural output significantly contribute to ESV change, with the former being negative and the latter being positive. A highly aggregated landscape also produces reduced ESV, particularly in soil maintenance and gas and climate regulation. We summarise the ESV in 2020 and in the period after adjustment in different administrative counties. Provision, regulation and culture ecosystem benefits substantially increase when attempts are made to lower the landscape aggregation pattern by 1%. In general, counties and county-level cities have the largest ESV, with food provision as the optimum ecosystem benefit. Districts in the capital city show an immense growth in provision and regulation, and county-level cities show the highest growth rate in cultural service. Integrating the landscape pattern into characterising and optimising ES, provides references for regional governance on land-use planning and socio-economic development, which is vital to sustainable regional development.