Impacts of regional land-use patterns on ecosystem services in the typical agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China. Issue 1 (31st December 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chen, Huimin; Zhao, Yu; Fu, Xiao; Tang, Mingfang; Guo, Mingjie; Zhang, Shiqi; Zhu, Yu; Qu, Laiye; Wu, Gang
• Is Part Of: Ecosystem health and sustainability. Volume 8:Issue 1(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-12-31
• Subjects: Distinct land use/land cover (LULC) patterns -- Spatial-temporal evolution of ecosystem services (ESs) -- Agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China -- InVEST models -- Structural equation modeling (SEM); Ecosystem health -- Periodicals; Environmental health -- Periodicals; Environmental policy -- Periodicals; Environmental engineering -- Periodicals; Environmental ethics -- Periodicals; Ecosystem management -- Periodicals; Ecosystem management; Environmental engineering; Environmental ethics; Environmental health; Environmental policy; Periodicals; 577
• DOI: 10.1080/20964129.2022.2110521
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2096-4129

Abstract

ABSTRACT: A comprehensive understanding of the spatial-temporal evolution and driving forces on ecosystem services (ES) is essential for the agro-pastoral ecotone's ecological security in northern China. However, the land-use pattern (LULC) agglomeration with spatial differentiation in the pastoral and agricultural areas has been rarely concerned. Taking distinct LULC (1980–2018) in Chifeng as an example, we compared four crucial categories of ESs with InVEST. Using SEM, we further contrasted the effects of several variables on regional ES variations in pastoral-dominated (North) and agriculture-dominated (South) regions, respectively. Results revealed the conversion between forest and grassland oriented the LULC transformation in the North. In contrast, human-activitiy-oriented land tended to occupy environmentally sensitive places in the South. Similar ES variations were supplied with the North outperforming the South when soil conservation was omitted. As for the impacts of regional ES variations, the natural and LULC policies both showed positive effects, whereas the anthropogenic factors showed positive in the North, which was negative in the South. Therefore, the ecologically-maintained-dominant and ecologically-restored-dominant strategies should be separately adopted in the North and South. Our study provided appropriate regional ecological management suggestions for balancing the LULC-driven conflicts between ecological protection and regional development.