Trees, Forests and People (Mar 2024)
Regulating ecosystem services in a local forest: Navigating supply, trade-offs, and synergies
Abstract
The management of ecosystem service supply in local forests is closely linked to the ecological well-being of residents. This study aimed to estimate the supply, tradeoffs, and synergies of local forest-regulating ecosystem services using a land cover classification map (LCCM) and a forest type map (FTM). Rigorous literature reviews and expert Delphi analyses were conducted to elicit a list of key regulating services and evaluate the potential of each ecosystem type and category of the 1:5,000 LCCM and FTM to provide the selected services. The Getis-Ord Gi* analysis was combined with the land-sue scoring method to propose a method for estimating the supply, trade-offs, and synergies of local forest ecosystem services. The results revealed that the ranking order (1st to 5th) of the supply of regulating ecosystem services was as follows: erosion prevention, air quality regulation, heat island mitigation, water quality regulation, and carbon storage. When analyzing the correlation between the defined services of the entire city, almost all services showed a synergistic effect. However, when analyzed locally, spatial tradeoffs (between heat island mitigation and air quality regulation; carbon storage and air quality regulation; water quality regulation and air quality regulation) were observed in the eastern and northwestern forest areas. This suggests the need to consider not only the synergies and trade-offs between specific ecosystem services at the regional level but also at the local level when managing regulating ecosystem services of local forests. The results of this study can serve as important baseline references for planners and policymakers during the planning phase of policies aimed at managing the supply of regulating ecosystem services for forests with restricted access. Moreover, the study results can help refine the estimation of the supply of regulating ecosystem services by integrating additional data sources.
