Context
From 1999 onwards, China has initiated a large-scale landscape restoration project on the Chinese Loess Plateau, which has had profound but variable impacts on the local ecosystem services supply. There was less understood of land restoration impacts on the ecosystem services and dynamics of ecosystem services thoroughout the restoration process.
Objectives
To to analyse the spatial and temporal dynamics in ecosystem services before and after the implementation of the land restoration project, and to understand trade-offs and synergies between multiple ecosystem services.
Methods
We used InVEST model and statistical yearbook data to quantify the ecosystem, the concept of ecosystem service bundles was applied to understand the dynamics of ecosystem services.
Results
A significant increase of fruit production, sediment retention, habitat quality, aesthetic landscape value, learning and inspiration value was found overtime in Yan’an area, while a decrease of timber production and water yield was also observed. The majority of ecosystem services bundles area were transformed from having a focus on timber production to aesthetic landscape value. The dynamics of ecosystem services change by land restoration was discovered, to start with increasing regulating services at expense of provisioning services, cultural services exceeding regulating services and occupied the main proportion subsequently.
Conclusion
Both trade-offs and synergies were found between provisioning, regulating and cultural services, implementation of the large-scale restoration project is recognized as a key driving force inducing change of ecosystem services.