Dynamics and controls of ecosystem multiserviceability across the Qingzang Plateau

Abstract

Ecosystem multiserviceability (EMS), a comprehensive and significant ecological indicator, reflects the capacity of ecosystems to offer multiple services concurrently. Intensified climate change and human activity are continuously altering ecosystem functions, services, and EMSs. However, numerous studies have only focused on one or a few ecosystem services, rarely taking into account spatial-temporal distribution and drivers of EMS on behalf of different agencies. We calculated EMS including pastoralist (PA), environmental protection agency (EPA), biodiversity conservation agency (BCA), and climate change mitigation agency (CCMA) using grassland production, habitat quality, water conservation, and carbon sequestration. Then, the effects of geographical features, climate factors, and human activities on spatial-temporal patterns of EMS were explored. The result indicated that EMS showed a decreasing tendency from the southeast to northwest on the Qingzang Plateau (QZP). Meanwhile, there were no obvious fluctuations in four simulated scenarios (PA, EPA, BCA and CCMA) among different vegetation types during 2000 to 2015. Notably, EMS of all simulated scenarios decreased in the alpine steppe ecosystem, but negligible changes were found in other ecosystems from 2015 to 2020. Moreover, the relative importance of precipitation in annual mean value (from 2000 to 2020) of PA, EPA, BCA and CCMA were 0.13, 0.11, 0.30 and 0.19, respectively. Overall, precipitation played the dominant role on the dynamics of EMS, followed by elevation and human footprint. Our findings highlighted that understanding the patterns and drivers of EMS could provide a reference for the regional management and maintenance of ecosystem stability on QZP.

Keywords

Ecosystem multiserviceability / Qingzang Plateau / Spatial-temporal patterns / Drivers

Declaration of Competing Interests

The authors declare that there are no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that influenced the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41871040), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (Grant No. 2019QZKK0405), and the Joint Research Project of Three-River-Resource National Park Funded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Qinghai Provincial People's Government (Grant No. LHZX-2020–08).

Supplementary materials

Supplementary material associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at doi: 10.1016/j.geosus.2023.06.004.

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