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. 2022 Aug 13;25(9):104928.
doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104928. eCollection 2022 Sep 16.

Hidden challenges behind ecosystem services improvement claims

Qing Yang  1   2   3 , Gengyuan Liu  4 , Linyu Xu  4 , Sergio Ulgiati  4   5 , Marco Casazza  6 , Yan Hao  4 , Zhongming Lu  7 , Xiaoya Deng  8 , Zhifeng Yang  1   3   4
Affiliations

Hidden challenges behind ecosystem services improvement claims

Qing Yang et al. iScience. .

Abstract

Substantial evidence indicates that China's afforestation statistically contributed to the ecosystem services (ES) improvement. However, we found the potential challenges behind this improvement, especially in water-limited areas. We propose an attribution analysis method, which can assess the specific contribution of natural, human and cognition degree drivers to ES dynamics. The results found that the ratio of natural and human drivers in the area north of China's 400 mm precipitation isopleth is 2:7. This means local vegetation capacity has already exceeded water limitation, implying a conflict between nature and humans. However, the natural contribution in the area between 400 and 800 mm precipitation isopleth is negative, whereas the human contribution is 91%. This means this area has fragile natural conditions and needs more flexible policies. The ratio of natural and human drivers in the region south of 800 mm precipitation isopleth is 6:3, suggesting the ecological policies here can be maintained.

Keywords: Environmental management; Environmental monitoring; Environmental policy; Natural resources.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

None
Graphical abstract
Figure 1
Figure 1
The change rate of China’s ecosystem services from 2000 to 2020 The green and red colors represent the increase and decrease in ecosystem services respectively; (A) indicates the change rate of ecosystem services of China’s different ecosystems; (B) shows the change rate of China’s provincial ecosystem services; the unit of ecosystem services is sej/yr.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The contribution rate of R, τ, S and δ to the changes in China’s ecosystem services Contr. Rate: Contribution rate; R: Natural drivers (such as precipitation, evapotranspiration, etc.); τ: Cognition degree driver (The significance degree of human attention to ecosystem services improvement); S: Human driver (land use change); δ: Errors.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Ecosystems’ contribution to the changes in ecosystem services (A) The percentage of changes in nine ecosystems’ services to the changes of provincial ecosystem services (F1: Forest; F2: Shrub; G1: High coverage grassland; G2: Medium coverage grassland; G3: Low coverage grassland; A1: Wetlands; A2: Lake; A3: Reservoir or pond; A4: River); (B) Diagram of different ecosystems leading contributions to changes in local ecosystem services.
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