Supply-Demand Balance of Ecosystem Services in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River Based on Land Use Change

Abstract

[Objective] This study was aimed to reveal the spatio-temporal characteristics of supply-demand balance of ecosystem services, and further to explore the dual effects and influencing mechanisms of land use change on the supply-demand balance of ecosystem services. [Methods] Taking the middle reaches of the Yangtze River as the research area and seleting 2000— 2018 as the research period, the quantitative matrix of supply-demand of ecosystem services was employed to analyze the spatio-temporal characteristics of the supply-demand balance of ecosystem service, and the ecological contribution rate of land use change was introduced to analyze the influencing mechanisms of land use change on the supply-demand balance of ecosystem services. [Results] (1) During the study period, the supply-demand balance of ecosystem services in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River had been continuously deteriorating, which was mainly caused by the large-scale expansion of construction land and the large-scale reduction of cultivated land and forest land, resulting in the decrease of supply capacity and the increase of consumption demand of ecosystem services. (2) The relationship between different supply of ecosystem services had changed from trade-off to synergy in time scale, and the synergy between different demand and supply-demand balance of ecosystem services had been further enhanced on the time scale, but the trade-off or synergy between supply, demand, and supply-demand balance was highly heterogeneous on the spatial scale. (3) Land use change in the MRYR had dual effects on the supply-demand balance of ecosystem services, and the deterioration effect was significantly larger than the improvement effect, but the types of land use change that cause the improvement and deterioration of supply-demand of ecosystem services and their sub-services had temporal heterogeneity. [Conclusion] Promote types of land use change that could improve the supply-demand balance of ecosystem services; promote types of land use change that are compatible with key ecosystem services; and curb types of land use change that would worsen the supply-demand balance of ecosystem services, in order to increase the sustainability of ecosystem services and improve the quality of the ecological environment.

Keywords

• ecosystem services
• supply-demand balance
• land use change
• middle reaches of the yangtze river