Abstract
Changing the landscape has serious environmental impacts affecting the ecosystem services, particularly in the tropics. In this paper, we report changes in ecosystem services in relation to land use and land cover over an 18-year period (1988–2006) in the Menglun Township, Xishuangbanna, Southwest China. We used Landsat TM/ETM and Quickbird data sets to estimate changes in ten land use and land cover categories, and generalized value coefficients to estimate changes in the ecosystem services provided by each land category. The results showed that over the 18-year period, the land use and land cover in the study area experienced significant changes. Rubber plantations increased from 12.10% of total land cover to 45.63%, while forested area and swidden field decreased from 48.73 and 13.14 to 27.57 and 0.46%, respectively. During this period, the estimated value of ecosystem services dropped by US $11.427 million (∼27.73%). Further analysis showed that there were significant changes in ecological functions such as nutrient cycling, erosion control, climate regulation and water treatment as well as recreation; the obvious increase in the ecological function is provision of raw material (natural rubber). Our findings conclude that an abrupt shift in land use from ecologically important tropical forests and traditionally managed swidden fields to large-scale rubber plantations result in a great loss of ecosystem services in this area. Further, the study suggests that provision of alternative economic opportunities would help in maintaining ecosystem services and for an appropriate compensation mechanisms need to be established based on rigorous valuation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.References
Aylward, B., & Barbier, E. B. (1992). Valuing environmental functions in developing countries. Biodiversity and Conservation, 1, 34–50.
Bawa, K. S., & Dayanandan, S. (1997). Socioeconomic factors and tropical deforestation. Nature, 386, 562–563.
Boyd, J. (2007). Nonmarket benefits of nature: What should be counted in green GDP? Ecological Economics, 61(4), 716–723.
Bürgi, M., Hersperger, A. M., & Schneeberger, N. (2004). Driving forces of landscape change – Current and new directions. Landscape Ecology, 19, 857–868.
Cao, M., Hu, H., Tang, Y., & Fu, X. (2003). Human dimension of tropical forest in Xishuangbanna, SW China. In M. Cao, K. Woods, H. B. Hu, & L. M. Li (Eds.) Biodiversity management and sustainable development (pp. 151–159). Beijing: China Forestry Publishing House.
Cao, M., & Zhang, J. H. (1997). Tree species diversity of tropical forest vegetation in Xishuangbanna, SW China. Biodiversity and Conservation, 6, 995–1006.
China Agricultural Division Committee (1984). The technical guide to land use status survey [in Chinese]. Beijing: China Surveying Press.
Costanza, R., d’Arge, R., de Groot, R., Farber, S., Grasso, M., Hannon, B., et al. (1997). The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature, 387, 253–260.
DeFries, R., & Bounoua, L. (2004). Consequences of land use change for ecosystem services: A future unlike the past. Geo Journal, 61, 345–351.
Fu, B. J., Chen, L. D., Ma, K. M., & Wang, Y. L. (2001). Principles and applications of landscape ecology [in Chinese]. Beijing, China: Science press.
Foley, J. A., DeFries, D., Asner, G. P., Barford, C., Bonan, G., Carpenter, S. R., et al. (2005). Global consequences of land use. Science, 309, 570–574.
Grau, H. R., Aide, T. M., Zimmerman, J. K., Thomlinson, J. R., Helmer, E., & Zou, X. (2003). The ecological consequences of socioeconomic and land-use changes in postagriculture Puerto Rico. BioScience, 53(12), 1159–1168.
Guo, H. J., Padoch, P., Coffey, K., Chen, A. G., & Fu, Y. N. (2002). Economic development, land use and biodiversity change in the tropical mountains of Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, Southwest China. Environmental Science & Policy, 5, 471–479.
Guo, Z., Xiao, X., Gan, Y., & Zheng, Y. (2001). Ecosystem functions, services and their values: A case study in Xingshan County of China. Ecological Economics, 38, 141–154.
Helmer, E. H. (2004). Forest conservation and land development in Puerto Rico. Landscape Ecology, 19, 29–40.
Kreuter, U. P., Harris, H. G., Matlock, M. D., & Lacey, R. E. (2001). Change in ecosystem service values in the San Antonio area, Texas. Ecological Economics, 39, 333–346.
Lambin, E. F., Turner, B. L., Geist, H. J., Agbola, S. B., Angelsen, A., Bruce, J. W., et al. (2001). The causes of land-use and land-cover change: Moving beyond the myths. Global Environmental Change, 11, 261–269.
Laurance, W. F. (2007a). Have we overstated the tropical biodiversity crisis? Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 22(2), 65–70.
Laurance, W. F. (2007b). A new initiative to use carbon trading for tropical forest conservation. Biotropica, 39(1), 20–24.
Li, H. M. (2001). Climate changes of Menglun in Xishuangbanna for the last 40 years. Meteorology, 27(10), 20–24 (in Chinese).
Li, M. R., & Sha, L. Q. (2005). Soil nitrogen mineralization under different land use patterns in Xishuangbanna. Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology, 16(1), 54–58 (in Chinese).
Li, R. Q., Dong, M., Cui, J. Y., Zhang, L. L., Cui, G. Q., & He, W. M. (2007). Quantification of the impact of land use and land cover changes on ecosystem services: A case study in Pingbian county, China. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 128, 503–510.
Liu, W. J., Ma, Y. X., Hu, H. B., Cao, M., & Wang, W. (2005). Land use and land cover change in the tropical rainforest region of Southern Yunnan. Journal of Mountain Science, 23(1), 71–79 (in Chinese).
Liu, W. J., Zhang, Y. P., Liu, Y. H., Li, H. M., & Duan, W. P. (2003). Comparison of fog interception at a tropical seasonal rainforest and a rubber plantation in Xishuangbanna, Southwest China. Acta Ecologia Sinica, 23(11), 2379–2386 (in Chinese).
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005). Ecosystems and human well-being: Biodiversity synthesis. World Resources Institute, Washington, District of Columbia.
Myers, N., Mittermeier, R. A., Mittermeier, C. G., da Fonseca, G. A. B., & Kent, J. (2000). Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature, 403, 853–858.
Peters, C. M., Gentry, A. H., & Mendelsohn, R. O. (1989). Valuation of an Amazonian rainforest. Nature, 339, 655–656.
Stigler, G. J. (1987). The theory of price, (4th ed). New York, USA: Macmillan.
Wang, Z. M., Zhang, B., Zhang, S. Q., Li, Z. Y., Liu, D. W., Song, K. S., et al. (2006). Changes of land use and of ecosystem service values in Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 112, 69–91.
Wu, J., & Hobbs, R. (2002). Key issues and research priorities in landscape ecology: An idiosyncratic synthesis. Landscape Ecology, 17, 355–365.
Zhang, J. H., & Cao, M. (1995). Tropical forest vegetation of Xishuangbanna, South West China, and its secondary changes, with special reference to some problems in local nature conservation. Biological Conservation, 73, 229–238.
Zhang, K. (1986). The influence of deforestation on tropical rainforest on local climate and disaster in Xishuangbanna region of China. Climatological Notes, 35, 223–236.
Zhang, Y. P., Zhang, K. Y., Ma, Y. X., Liu, Y. H., & Liu, W. J. (1997). Runoff characteristics of different vegetation covers in tropical regions of Xishuangbanna, Yunnan. Journal of Soil Erosion and Soil and Water Conservation, 3(4), 26–30 (in Chinese).
Zhao, B., Kreuter, U., Li, B., Ma, H., Chen, J., & Nakagoshi, N. (2004). An ecosystem service value assessment of land-use change on Chongming Island, China. Land Use Policy, 21, 139–148.
Zhu, H. (1997). Ecological and biogeographical studies on the tropical rain forest of South Yunnan, SW China with a special reference to its relation with rain forests of tropical Asia. Journal of Biogeography, 24, 647–662.
Zhu, H., Xu, Z. F., Wang, H., & Li, B. G. (2004). Tropical rain forest fragmentation and its ecological and species diversity changes in southern Yunnan. Biodiversity and Conservation, 13, 55–1372.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hu, H., Liu, W. & Cao, M. Impact of land use and land cover changes on ecosystem services in Menglun, Xishuangbanna, Southwest China. Environ Monit Assess 146, 147–156 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-007-0067-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-007-0067-7