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The prolonged disregard for the Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP) has limited the effectiveness of regional ecological conservation. However, identifying and safeguarding areas with high GEP, and optimizing their distribution and spatial structure, are of great immense for preserving ecosystem services (ESs). Our goal is to refine the spatial configuration of ecological network (EN), and subsequently augment and sustain the stability of ESs. We have specifically chosen Hechi City, situated in the Karst region of southwest China, as our case study. Firstly, we devised a GEP evaluation system to pinpoint crucial areas as ecological sources. Subsequently, we utilized the circuit theory and minimum cumulative resistance model to construct the preliminary EN. Through the circuit theory model identified the key nodes in the EN and optimized the EN. Finally, by combining complex network analysis methods, we evaluated the robustness and topological characteristics of the EN. Our results showed that the area of ecological sources increased from 71 to 161 after optimization. The number of corridors increased from 161 to 423, resulting in an overall increment of 8.8% in the source area. The connectivity and stability of the optimized EN can be significantly enhanced. The addition of new nodes increases the overall importance of the network, making the importance of each node more balanced. Additionally, the complex network analysis method provided a detailed understanding about the spatial topology of the overall and local elements of the EN. The study results can provide a valuable reference for optimizing, restoring and evaluating ENs in karst areas.

Scientific understanding of the coupling relationship between grazing activities and grassland ecosystem is an important foundation for protecting and improving the ecological quality of grassland. This study took the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (Inner Mongolia) as the research area, systematically evaluated the grassland ecosystem and grazing intensity status in Inner Mongolia, and evaluated the ecological quality of Inner Mongolia county based on the four quadrant model. The results showed that: (1) The types of landscape patterns in Inner Mongolia were mainly grassland, forest, and desert. During the study period, the overall pattern of the landscape was stable, but problems such as urban expansion needed to be given more attention. (2) The areas with good grassland ecosystem carrying capacity were principally distributed in the eastern and southeastern Inner Mongolia, while the western Inner Mongolia and the northwest region of the Xilingol League were relatively low, and in the period 2000–2010 the ecological quality of the Inner Mongolia grassland in general belonged to the fair, middle level, but had been in a stable state and showed a good direction to improve the trend of ascension. (3) The grazing overload degree (GOD) in Inner Mongolia was significantly different in the region. GOD decreased from northeast to southwest in both periods. And most of the grassland stocking pressure was alleviated during 2000–2010. (4) The results of the four quadrant model analysis showed that there were obvious spatial differences in ecological quality in Inner Mongolia. And about 97% of the research area was located in the first, second, and fourth quadrants, with only 3% located in the third quadrant. From 2000 to 2010, the counties with nearly unchangeable and non-significantly worse accounted for 91.76% and 4.33%, respectively, indicating that the overall grassland ecosystem in Inner Mongolia remained stable and showed a slight improvement trend. This study can provide the necessary reference basis for the scientific formulation of grassland resources-related policies and plans and the promotion of grassland ecological protection in Inner Mongolia.

Research on synergies and trade-offs between ecosystem services (ES) contributes to a better understanding of the linkages between ecosystem functions. Relevant research mainly focuses on mountain areas, while research in arid areas is obviously insufficient. In this research, we use the northern sand-stabilization belt (NSB) as an example to explore how the synergies and trade-offs between different ES vary with the gradient of precipitation and fractional vegetation cover (FVC) over the period 2000-2020. Based on five simulated ecosystem services (habitat provision, sand-stabilization service, water conservation service, soil conservation service and carbon sequestration service), the Pearson correlation coefficient method was used to analyze the various characteristics of the trade-offs and synergies among the different ES pairs along the FVC and precipitation gradients. Results showed that: Synergies between most paired ES increased significantly with increasing precipitation and FVC. However, ES have different sensitivities to environmental change, FVC promotes bit more synergy of ES pairs than precipitation. The study also found that land use/land cover may be an important driving factor for trade-offs and synergies between paired ES. The findings demonstrate that increased precipitation and FVC promote synergy of ecosystem services in arid regions of China. In the future, it can be investigated whether anthropogenic increase in FVC in arid regions can significantly contribute to the synergy of ES. In the meantime, this study could improve our understanding of arid and semi-arid (or macro-regional) ecosystems and contribute to the development of ecosystem management and conservation measures in NSB.

The complexity and fragility of the Yellow River Basin ecosystem limits its economic growth and sustainable social development as a strategic planning area for development in western China. The Chinese government has established the Loess Plateau Ecological Screen (LPES) in the region to eliminate or mitigate the negative ecological impacts of human activities represented by the expansion of impervious surfaces (IS) through active ecological conservation and restoration. However, there are few studies that quantify the effects of impervious surfaces on ecosystem services (ES). To fill this gap, this study takes the LPES in China as an example and explores the response of ES to IS changes and its scale effect from 2000 to 2020. Based on remote sensing, meteorological, soil, hydrological, social, and economic data using GIS spatial analysis techniques. The results show that: From 2000 to 2020, the urbanization of the LPES developed rapidly, and the IS increased rapidly. The increase in IS affected the supply of ES, which decreased with the increase in IS growth rate, and this phenomenon had a scale effect. Overall, except for soil conservation service (SCS) - IS, carbon storage service (C) - IS at the administrative scale, the negative correlation increased with increasing scale, while the opposite was true at the grid scale. There were thresholds for the response of ES to IS, and the thresholds were also influenced by the scale of study. The smaller the scale was, the lower the threshold was. However, there were differences in the ranking of each ES reaching the threshold with increasing IS at the grid-scale and administrative division scale. The ecosystem services composite index (ESCI) was found to be the best indicator for exploring the relationship between IS and ES compared to other single ecosystem services indices, with the largest negative correlation with IS and the least influenced by scale effects. Given the obvious scale effect of IS on ES, this study suggests that the development of ecological management programs at the national level should be macroscopically regulated at the provincial level, with specific measures at smaller grid scales (5 Km × 5 Km) to constrain IS expansion..

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.

The economic and social development evaluation system with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the leading indicator is no longer applicable to the current social progress in China. It is essential to carry out an assessment of the Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP) to integrate ecological benefits into the economic and social evaluation system and promote sustainable socio-economic development. This study took Guangxi, an important province in South China, as the study area. We used four periods of land use and land cover data (LULC), meteorological data, soil data and yearbook statistics to construct a GEP assessment framework based on geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) technologies. We accounted for the provisioning services, regulating services, and tourism services provided by Guangxi in 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020 and analyzed the region’s and municipalities’ spatial–temporal pattern characteristics and trends of change in GEP. In addition, this study also discusses the relationship between GEP and GDP. The results showed that many important products and services provided by natural ecosystems in Guangxi had enormous economic benefits. GEP had increased from CNY 15,657.37 billion in 2005 to CNY 36,677.04 billion in 2020, and the distribution of GEP showed obvious spatial heterogeneity. The value of ecosystem regulation services was about 65–89% of GEP, which is the main component of GEP. From 2005 to 2020, natural ecosystem protection and socio-economic development have achieved coordinated development in Guangxi. GEP and GDP showed upward trends in general. Although Guangxi is relatively backward in terms of economic development, the scientific quantification of the unrealized value of the services provided by the ecosystem through GEP accounting makes it possible to transform ecological advantages into economic advantages. It could help the local government and people to re-recognize the value of ecological resources and realize the beautiful vision of lucid waters and lush mountains as invaluable assets.

The ecosystem in the Northeast Forest Belt (NFB) can provide various ecosystem services, such as soil conservation, habitat provision, water conservation, and so on. It is essential for maintaining the ecological environment in Northeast China and the entire country. In the face of increasingly severe environmental problems, the comprehensive and accurate evaluation of ecosystem conditions and their changes is significant for scientific and reasonable recovery and protection measures. In this study, the NFB was taken as the research area. The spatio-temporal changes in ecological quality from 2005 to 2015 and the main driving factors behind them were analyzed by constructing the comprehensive ecosystem evaluation index. The results showed that: The landscape types of the NFB were mainly forest, cropland, and grassland. And the better ecological environment of the NFB was mainly distributed in the south of Changbai Mountains (CBM), the middle of Lesser Khingan Mountains (LKM), and the northwest of Greater Khingan Mountains (GKM). In contrast, the northeast of CBM, the southwest of LKM, and the edge of southern GKM were relatively poor. During 2005–2015, the ecosystem in the NFB was in a relatively good state as a whole, showing a steady-to-good development trend. However, more attention needed to be paid to some areas where degradation still existed. Land use/cover, climate (annual average rainfall, etc.), and human disturbance were potential factors affecting ecosystem evolution in the NFB. This study aims to provide an effective scientific basis and policy reference for the environmental protection and construction of the NFB.