Quantifying the Ecosystem Services of Soda Saline-Alkali Grasslands in Western Jilin Province, NE China

Abstract

This study aimed to quantitatively describe the ecosystem services of soda saline-alkali grasslands based on literature research, the InVEST model, a transition matrix, and Spearman’s correlation analysis. The chosen methodology could provide insight into the relationships between different services to provide empirical evidence for decision-making concerning the protection and restoration of saline-alkali grasslands. The research provided several insights into the ecological situation in western Jilin Province. First, the area of saline-alkali grassland in western Jilin Province had noticeably decreased from 1990 to 2018. Moreover, the threat of grassland degradation in western Jilin Province has increased year by year, and has become the main problem facing the ecological environment of this region. Second, the results demonstrated how the amount of grassland area, and coverage, are intricately linked to the provided ecosystem services, and maintaining the stability of ecosystem services is the basis for future efforts to increase grassland area and coverage. A trade-off relationship exists between water supply services and other ecosystem services, which indirectly confirms a climatic cause for grassland salinization in western Jilin Province. The analyses identified various types of grassland ecosystem service hotspots, but the share of hotspots representing all four assessed ecosystem services was small; this indicates that the grassland ecosystem of western Jilin Province is of generally poor quality. In conclusion, increasing grassland salinization has reduced vegetation coverage, which leads to the degradation of the grassland ecosystem and, in turn, affects the relationships between various ecosystem services.