Characteristics and spatial–temporal patterns of supply and demand of ecosystem services in the Taihang Mountains

Abstract

Research on the spatial–temporal pattern of the supply and demand associated with ecosystem services(ESs) is of great significance for regional sustainable development. Due to their high spatial heterogeneity, the relationship between supply and demand of ESs in mountainous areas in particular needs to be further studied. This paper examines the supply and demand of ESs in the Taihang Mountains from 2000 to 2018 at both the whole-region and county scale to evaluate supply–demand patterns, the nature and resilience of the supply–demand relationship, and to analyze spatiotemporal variation and characteristics, which can provide a basis for the coordination and sustainable management of the supply and demand relationship of the ecosystem. Our results showed that during the study period: （1)the ecosystem services supply(ESS) increased by 2.36% and the ecosystem services demand(ESD) increased by 50.93%,the increase in the rate of ESS was far less than that of ESD and on the county scale, the ESS of 20% of the counties decreased whereas and the ESD of all counties increased.（2)the supply and demand pattern of the Taihang Mountains remained basically unchanged，the types of supply and demand in the Taihang Mountains are mainly low supply-high demand, low supply-low demand, and high supply-low demand, accounting for>90% of the total county number.（3)the average supply and demand index of high altitude counties is more than five times that of low altitude counties.The average supply and demand index of counties with low economic growth rate is twice that of the high economic growth rate.（4)67% of counties reduced the resilience level of total ecosystem services（TES), the resilience level of the provisioning services(PS) decreased most significantly, reaching 76%.

Keywords

• Taihang Mountains
• Ecosystem services
• The supply and demand index
• Resilience level
• Temporal and spatial patterns