Analysis on the dynamic changes in a regional ecosystem and evaluation of its service values based on Remote Sensing

Abstract

The ecosystem service value is an important concept and an index that reflects the quality of the regional ecological environment status and the measurement of the total ecological benefits. In this study, based on the characteristics of land use and the types of ecosystem in the studied area, the ecological indicators including the net primary productivity of the vegetation and the vegetation cover were selected. Landsat TM remote sensing image, ground-based observation, meteorological data and statistical data etc. were applied to establish the remote sensing-based assessment criteria and assessment model for quantitative estimation of the ecosystem service value. The established assessment criteria and model were applied to conduct the quantitative calculation on the value of the single ecosystem service and the ecosystem service value per unit area. The results indicated that during the decade of 2000–2010, with the inter-conversion of different types of land use, the total value of the ecological service in the studied area displayed a gradually decreasing trend. Among which, the values of ecological service of the cultivation land, wetland and the total ecological service were reduced by 11.92, 11.75 and 5.74%, respectively. While the values of ecological services of forest land, waters and intertidal zone were increased to certain extend. However, these increased values did not change the continuously decreasing trend of the total value of ecosystem service in the studied area. Based on these assessments, the spatially- and temporally-changing patterns of the values of ecosystem service in the studied area were analysed to reveal their intrinsic relationship between the land use and the changes in values of ecosystem service.