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Temporal variation and spatial scale dependency of ecosystem service interactions: a case study on the central Loess Plateau of China

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Abstract

Contexts

An important feature of ecosystem service interaction is that it changes over time and across spatial scales.

Objectives

This research aims to find which ecosystem service interactions temporally vary and depend on spatial scale.

Methods

We calculated six ecosystem services of the Baota District on the central Loess Plateau of China for 2000, 2005, and 2010. Furthermore, we quantified the interactions among these services at the beginning and after the end of the first phase of the Grain for Green Program in this area, and across the pixel scale of 1 km2 and the town scale.

Results

Water yield decreased significantly, and habitat quality, net primary productivity, and evapotranspiration increased significantly across different land use types from 2000 to 2005. The synergy between food productivity and water yield, and the trade-off between water yield and evapotranspiration, greatly reduced from 2000 to 2010 at the pixel scale. Water yield was a trade-off to habitat quality, NPP, and recreation capacity in 2000 at the pixel scale while a synergy to the three services in 2010. The synergies between habitat quality and NPP, evapotranspiration, and recreation capacity at the pixel scale were enhanced from 2000 to 2010. Changes in the direction or significance of correlations among ecosystem services were observed across the pixel and town scales in 2000 and 2010.

Conclusions

This study contributes to increasing the understanding of the temporal variation of ecosystem service interactions caused by regional ecological restoration programs, and the spatial scale dependency of the interactions.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41571130083 and 41601556). We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 18 Shuangqing Rd, Beijing, 100085, China

    Ying Hou, Yihe Lü, Weiping Chen & Bojie Fu

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  1. Ying Hou
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  2. Yihe Lü
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  3. Weiping Chen
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  4. Bojie Fu
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Correspondence to Yihe Lü.

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Hou, Y., Lü, Y., Chen, W. et al. Temporal variation and spatial scale dependency of ecosystem service interactions: a case study on the central Loess Plateau of China. Landscape Ecol 32, 1201–1217 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-017-0497-8

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