Assessing the Impact of Climate and Human Activities on Ecosystem Services in the Loess Plateau Ecological Screen, China

Abstract

The ecosystem services (ES) can be influenced by various environmental factors. In order to efficiently allocate resources and manage ecosystems, it is important to understand the mechanisms by which these environmental effects impact the interactions and trade-offs among different ES. While previous studies have primarily examined the impact of individual environmental factors on ES, the intricate mechanisms underlying the effects of multiple environmental factors have been largely overlooked. In this study, we adopted a path analysis approach that considered interactions among explanatory variables. We analyzed multiple geospatial datasets from various sources, including remote sensing and climate data, to examine the main drivers—precipitation, temperature, FVC (fractional vegetation cover), NPP (net primary productivity), human activities, and altitude—affecting five ecosystem services: carbon sequestration service (C), habitat provision service (HP), soil conservation service (SCS), sand-stabilization service (SSS), and water conservation service (WCS) in arid and semi-arid mountainous regions. Our investigation found that all five ES have shown an upward trajectory over the past two decades. The most significant growth was observed in C, which increased by 39.4%. Among the environmental factors examined, precipitation has been identified as the predominant factor influencing the ES and the synergies and trade-offs among ES. The influence of precipitation on SCS reached a coefficient of 0.726. Human activity factors had the greatest influence on HP of the five ES with a path coefficient of 0.262. Conversely, temperature exhibited a suppressive influence on ES. The impact of factors such as NPP and altitude on ES was comparatively modest. Notably, human activities assumed a substantial contributory role in shaping the relationship encompassing WCS. It is worth noting that individual factors exerted differential effects on ES along distinct environmental gradients, including anthropogenic gradients. In this context, the combination of high altitude and substantial FVC demonstrated a notable contribution to WCS. Our study can provide valuable insights for the management of ES which can be utilized to optimize the regulation of the Loess Plateau Ecological Screen (LPES) ecological construction and promote regional sustainable development.