A study on the spatiotemporal differentiation of typical ecosystem services and influencing factors in the Dongjiang River Basin from 2000 to 2019

Abstract

Abstract Monitoring changes in watershed ecosystem services is an important aspect of watershed ecological security assessment and the anchor point for research on watershed ecological protection and economic development. Current research has focused on the assessment of typical ecosystem service functions in watersheds, with relatively little research on influencing factors and their spatio-temporal change impact mechanisms. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the spatio-temporal variation mechanisms of ecosystem services and influencing factors in the Dongjiang River Basin(DRB) in China from 2000 to 2019. The results show that the land use structure of DRB has been stable and typical ecosystem services such as water retention, soil and water conservation, and carbon storage are slightly reduced in the past 20 years. The typical ecosystem services of the study area are influenced by topographic factors, climatic factors, and natural socio-economic factors, and are significantly related to precipitation, temperature, elevation, slope, GDP, population, and NDVI. From 2000 to 2019, the influence factors have obvious spatial and temporal heterogeneity, with the largest positive influence factor of NDVI and slope showing a diffusion enhancement trend, and the largest negative influence factor of population density showing the same trend. The overall ecosystem service function has remained stable, and the coordination between economic development and ecological protection has been good. Future regional development needs to further implement the ecological protection development strategy, focus on and implement measures to improve the ecological service function of key areas, and reduce the negative impact of population.