Title：Spatio-temporal Dynamics of Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP) and the Impacts of Human Activities Disturbance in an Ecologically Fragile Region from 1990 to 2020

Abstract

Abstract Context: As an index of ecological well-being, Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP) estimates the value of final ecosystem services or the direct benefits people derive from the ecosystem. Objectives: In this research, we accounted for GEP and quantified the impacts of human activities on GEP in Shanxi, an ecologically fragile area in China, from 1990 to 2020. Methods: We associated all kinds of non-spatial data with spatial data and employed the local indicators of spatial association, the Sankey diagram, and the empirical orthogonal decomposition (EOF) to explore the spatio-temporal dynamic properties of GEP. The transfer matrix and gravity model were used to measure the response of the GEP to disturbance from human activities due to urbanization. Results: The results show that: (1) excluding 2010, the GEP possesses a growth trend and increased from 117.65 billion Chinese yuan (CNY) to 4594.89 billion CNY; (2) contrary to the steady growth of the GEP, the regions with high GEP generally tended to decrease, and the Green Gold Index (GGI) tended to increase and then decrease; (3) the spatial distribution of GEP in Shanxi is restricted, and there is a tendency for this restriction to decrease over time; (4) the decade from 2005 to 2015 has the fewest changes in the GEP of Shanxi; (5) the GEP field has a globally consistent type and a high-value-low-value inverse phase-type in the variation of the spatial distribution, and the first type accounts for 61.74% of the total variance in the EOF; (6) the variation of GEP in different cities may differ significantly over time, and the cities with more disturbance from human activities have lower GEP or higher variance in GEP; (7) the disturbance of residential land has a more significant impact on the GEP than the disturbance of industrial and mining land in Shanxi. Conclusion: Our research could provide important insights into ecological assessment in an ecologically fragile region, thus providing a policy basis for the conservation and better use of environmental resources.