Spatial Variation and Terrain Gradient Effect of Ecosystem Services in Heihe River Basin over the Past 20 Years

With the advent of large-scale development, extreme imbalance in the ecology of the Heihe River Basin (HRB) has caused a series of ecological problems. In order to explore the spatiotemporal variation of ecosystem services (ESs) and to assess the characteristics of ESs under the terrain gradient effect (TGE), the three key ESs were quantified based on the InVEST model using five series of land-use data obtained from remote sensing images from 2000 to 2020 in this study. The terrain index was used to analyze the influence of terrain on ESs. The results show that most of the ESs were in high numbers in the south and low numbers in the north, as well as high numbers in the middle and upper reaches and low numbers at downstream locations. It was found that high-quality habitats degrade to general-quality habitats, and poor-quality habitats evolve into general-quality habitats. It was also found that the water production volume continues to decline and soil conservation becomes relatively stable with little change. This study illustrates different ESs showing obvious TGE with changes in elevation and slope. These results indicate that the effect of land-use change is remarkable and TGE is highly important to ESs in inland watersheds. This research study can provide a scientific basis for the optimization of regional ecosystem patterns. The results are of great significance in terms of rational planning land use, constructing ecological civilizations, and maintaining the physical conditions of land cover at inland river basins.

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Spatial Pattern Analysis of a Water-Related Ecosystem Service and Evaluation of the Grassland-Carrying Capacity of the Heihe River Basin under Land Use Change

Water ◽

10.3390/w13192658 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (19) ◽

pp. 2658

Author(s):

Rui Luo ◽

Shiliang Yang ◽

Yang Zhou ◽

Pengqun Gao ◽

Tianming Zhang

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Land Use Change ◽

River Basin ◽

Carrying Capacity ◽

Animal Husbandry ◽

Heihe River Basin ◽

Heihe River ◽

The Impact ◽

The Heihe River Basin

A key challenge to the sustainability and security of grassland capacity is the protection of water-related ecosystem services (WESs). With the change of land use, the supply of aquatic ecosystem services has changed, and the grassland-carrying capacity has been affected. However, the correlation mechanism between WESs and the grassland-carrying capacity is not clear. In this study, we used the InVEST(Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) model to evaluate the impact of land-use change on WESs, and made a tradeoff analysis between WESs and grassland-carrying capacity. Considering that the Heihe River Basin (HRB) was an important grassland vegetation zone, which was a milestone for the development of animal husbandry in China, HRB was taken as a case. The main findings are as follows: (1) the spatial distribution of WESs shows the dissimilation rule, the upper reaches are the main water yield area, the soil retention is weakening in the middle and lower reaches, and the pollution has further increased in the middle and upper reaches. (2) The carrying capacity of animal husbandry decreased in the upper reaches, increased in Shandan County and Zhangye City in the middle reaches, and decreased sharply in other regions. (3) There was a positive correlation between the livestock-carrying capacity and nitrogen export in 2018, which was increasing. As the change of land use has changed the evapotranspiration structure, WESs have undergone irreversible changes. Meanwhile, the development of large-scale irrigated farmland and human activities would be the source of a further intensification of regional soil erosion and water pollution. Therefore, it is necessary to trade off the WESs and animal husbandry under land-use change. This paper revealed how WESs changed from 2000 to 2018, the characteristics of the changes in the spatial and temporal distribution, and the carrying capacity. It aims to provide a scientific basis for coordinating the contradiction between grassland and livestock resources, improving the regional ecological security situation, and carrying out ecosystem management.

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Land Use Zoning for Conserving Ecosystem Services under the Impact of Climate Change: A Case Study in the Middle Reaches of the Heihe River Basin

Advances in Meteorology ◽

10.1155/2015/496942 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 2015 ◽

pp. 1-13 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Chenchen Shi ◽

Jinyan Zhan ◽

Yongwei Yuan ◽

Feng Wu ◽

Zhihui Li

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

River Basin ◽

Heihe River Basin ◽

Heihe River ◽

Impact Of Climate Change ◽

The Impact ◽

The Heihe River Basin

Ecosystem services are the benefit human populations derive directly and indirectly from the natural environment. They suffer from both the human intervention, like land use zoning change, and natural intervention, like the climate change. Under the background of climate change, regulation services of ecosystem could be strengthened under proper land use zoning policy to mitigate the climate change. In this paper, a case study was conducted in the middle reaches of the Heihe River Basin to assess the ecosystem services conservation zoning under the change of land use associated with climate variations. The research results show the spatial impact of land use zoning on ecosystem services in the study area which are significant reference for the spatial optimization of land use zoning in preserving the key ecosystem services to mitigate the climate change. The research contributes to the growing literature in finely characterizing the ecosystem services zones altered by land use change to alleviate the impact of climate change, as there is no such systematic ecosystem zoning method before.

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