Zoning of the ecosystem service functions under multiple land consolidation scenarios

Abstract: Ecosystem services can greatly contribute to human health and well-being. It is critical to delineate the ecosystem services into the function zones for the decision-making space management in sustainable development. Different management measures can also be implemented to improve the ability of ecosystem services, according to the type of ecological function zones. A land consolidation has posed diverse influences on the ecosystem in recent years, particularly on the idle, inefficient use and ecological degradation of land resources. However, only a few studies have focused on the impacts of land consolidation on the spatial agglomeration of ecosystem services. It is still lacking in the perceptiveness of consolidation policies. Taking the Zhaoyuan City, Shandong Province of China as an example, three scenarios of land consolidation were designed to realize the functional zoning of ecosystem services, according to territorial spatial planning. The specific three scenarios included the Business-as-Usual scenario (BAU), reclamation of abandoned mining areas scenario (RAM), as well as the scenarios of an increasing-decreasing balance of urban and rural construction land (BCL). A Markov-FLUS model was utilized to project the future demands of land use and spatial distribution under the three scenarios. A scenario simulation was also carried out to calculate the multiple ecosystem services. Furthermore, a fuzzy C-means clustering was selected to identify the ecological function zones, thereby exploring the ecosystem service capacity of function zones. The results showed there were significant changes in the land use structure and the improvement of ecosystem services under all scenarios of land consolidation. The cultivated land increased 76.32 hm2 and 1 516.86 hm2 in the RAM and BCL. The forestland also experienced a significant increase of 221.49 hm2 and 2 280.60 hm2 in the RAM and BCL, compared with BAU. The scale of construction land was effectively managed to improve the total amount of ecosystem in the RAM and BCL. There was a spatial heterogeneity of the RAM and BCL improvement. Not all the sub-districts (towns) improved ecosystem services. For example, most ecosystem services in the Quanshan sub-district and Biguo town decreased in the RAM, while the total carbon storage in the Mengzhi and Wenquan sub-districts decreased by 0.02% and 0.32% in the BCL, respectively. According to the function structure of ecosystem services, five ecological functional zones were divided, i.e., habitat conservation, carbon storage, carbon storage-food production, ecological maintenance, and comprehensive ecological zone. Compared with the BAU, the RAM was partially improved ecosystem services of functional zones. 60% of ecosystem services in the five ecological functional zones under the RAM were on the average level, similar to those in the BAU, and 28% of those were inferior, while only 12% of those were superior. The BCL significantly promoted the natural recreation service of all ecological functional zones, with an overall increase of 1.89%. The average value of natural recreation and food production increased by 0.25 and 0.10, respectively, in the habitat conservation zones. The average value of habitat quality and water conservation increased by 20.69% and 100%, respectively, in the carbon storage zones. A comprehensive consolidation potential can be taken in the different sub-districts (towns) to enhance the multiple services capacity of ecosystems, thereby delving into the potential of the key sources of rural land for a lower expansion rate of urban construction land.