Advances and Prospects in Research of Land Ecosystem Service Value

Ecosystem provides supply,regulation,support and cultural services.The value assessment of ecosystem service functions is helpful for people to understand the importance of natural ecosystems to production and life.Through analyzing domestic and foreign research on ecosystem service value,this paper sorted out the research process of value assessment.Based on the assessment process,the existing assessment methods and the introduced model methods were summarized,and the methods and models used by the latest research were classified.According to the weakness of the existing studies,it discussed prospects of future research.It is expected to promote multi-scale and multi-directional research exploration and enrich the theory and method of value assessment.

Changes in Ecosystem Service of Soil Conservation Between 2000 and 2010 and Its Driving Factors in Southwestern China

Human activities significantly alter ecosystems and their services; however, quantifying the impact of human activities on ecosystems has been a great challenge in ecosystem management. We used the Universal Soil Loss Equation and county-level socioeconomic data to assess the changes in the ecosystem service of soil conservation between 2000 and 2010, and to analyze its spatial characteristics and driving factors in the southwestern China. The results showed that cropland in the southwestern China decreased by 3.74%, while urban land, forest, and grassland areas increased by 46.78%, 0.86%, and 1.12%, respectively. The soil conservation increased by 1.88 × 10^(11) kg, with deterioration only in some local areas. The improved and the degraded areas accounted for 6.41% and 2.44% of the total land area, respectively. Implementation of the Sloping Land Conversion Program and urbanization explained 57.80% and 23.90% of the variation in the soil conservation change, respectively, and were found to be the main factors enhancing soil conservation. The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake was one of the factors that led to the degradation of soil conservation. Furthermore, industrial adjustment, by increasing shares of Industry and Service and reducing those of Agriculture, has also promoted soil conservation. Our results quantitatively showed and emphasized the contributions to soil conservation improvement made by implementing ecological restoration programs and promoting urbanization. Consequently, these results provide basic information to improve our understanding of the effects of ecological restoration programs, and help guide future sustainable urban development and regional industrial restructuring.

The ecological cost of land reclamation and its enlightenment to coast sustainable development in the northwestern Bohai Bay,China

Land has been widely reclaimed in large area in coastal zones all over the world to relieve the pressure of land shortage,promoting social development and economic growth.Asia has become a focus of land reclamation with the rapid industrialization and urbanization.From the Binhai New Area of Tianjin to the Caofeidian New Area of Tangshan,the undergoing project of land reclamation on the northwest coast of Bohai Bay,China,is the largest in the world.To clarify the environmental issues and benefit sustainable development of the coastal zone,we conducted both retrospective and predictive assessments of the ecological cost caused by land reclamation on the northwest coast of Bohai Bay,China.We calculated the ecological costs of ten aspects of the four ecosystem services,i.e.,supply,regulation,support and culture,with the monetary estimate approach.The results indicate that the ecological cost of the new land reclamation is US$971.9 million from 2000 to 2010 and that the cost will be US$702.1 million from 2010 to 2020.The costs of gas regulation and marine food supply account for the greatest parts of the total value.Suggestions for land reclamation oriented to sustainable development in the study area are put forward,including a rational planning based on the comprehensive evaluation,reducing the amount of land reclamation area,optimizing the structure of the reclaimed land,reclaiming land with the concept of ＂low impact development＂ and implementing ecological compensation mechanisms,etc.

The net ecosystem services value in China's Mainland

Protection of the ecological environment is an effective strategy for maintaining ecosystem health,improving provision of ecosystem services,and increasing human well-being.However,traditional calculations of the value of ecosystem services(VES)provide weak guidance because they ignore the costs of these services,leading to economically inefficient strategies.To understand the difference between VES and the net ecosystem services value(NES,after subtracting costs from VES)and to improve evaluations of ecosystem services,we estimated NES for China's Mainland(including farmland,grassland,forest,and wetland).NES totaled 10.0×10~3RMB ha^(-1)yr^(-1)in 2014,which is only 35.1%of the corresponding VES.Grassland NES was–0.7×10~3RMB ha^(-1)yr^(-1),in contrast with a positive grassland VES.NES of farmland,grassland,forest,and wetland in2014 totaled 7.2×10^(12)RMB,accounting for 27.0%of China’s GNP.Recent Chinese planning based on VES emphasizes forest conservation and ignores the conservation of other important ecosystems,such as grassland,leading to a continuing loss of China’s natural capital.Due to regional differences in economic conditions,resource endowments,and geographical characteristics,VES and NES differ among regions.To maximize the ecological benefits from conservation,it is necessary to account for these differences by comparing strategies based on NES,thereby choosing projects that maximize both economic and ecological benefits.To maintain the ecological balance,ecological restoration and socioeconomic activities should account for the costs of providing ecosystem services.This is essential to minimize the costs and maximize the benefits of projects.

Land Use and Ecological Civilization: A Collection of Empirical Studies

The goal of ecological civilization construction is to realize the harmonious coexistence of human and nature.Land is the spatial carrier of ecological civilization construction.Land use types or behaviors reflect the level of intensive use of land resources,leading to different ecological environmental effects,thereby affecting the level of regional ecological civilization construction.This issue,"Land Use and Ecological Civilization",discusses the theory and method of land use management in the view of ecological civilization from the aspects of land use efficiency,land use change,land multi-functional trade-off,land ecosystem service and land ecological risk by selecting 14 representative papers,providing practical reference for the formation of the land use mode and behavioral system of ecological civilization.With abundant research levels,this issue covers varied research scales such as village,county and province,various landform types such as plain and hill,and typical land use areas at home and abroad such as East China,Central China,Northwest China,Yangtze River Economic Belt and Japan.Being frontier and practical,the multidisciplinary research methods in this issue include literature research method,fractal theory,qualitative comparative analysis,VAR model,and econometrics,among others.Focusing on the prominent problems in the process of land use,this issue deeply discusses the hot topics such as land ecological efficiency,spatial behavior characteristics,land use structure optimization and ecological risk assessment.This issue not only reviews the current literature on urgent land use issues such as arable land abandonment and land use risk,but also tries to conduct trade-off and synergy analysis on the varied functions of the rural landscape and ecosystem,thus providing a theoretical and empirical basis for solving land use problems from the perspective of ecological civilization.This issue reflects the realistic urgency of guiding land use with the concept of ecological civilization,and provides theoretical guidance and technical support from the aspects of methods and research framework.Finally,this issue proposes five hot topics in the field of land use research from the perspective of ecological civilization in the future,namely,ecological management of land use structure,ecological evolution mechanism of land use process,land ecological use mode,early warning and regulation of land ecological security pattern,ecological management and control of land use behavior.