Investigating the compounding effects of environmental factors on ecosystem services relationships for Ecological Conservation Red Line areas

Quantitative attribution of the relationships between ecosystem services (ES) is crucial for ecosystem management and the sustainable development of the ecological environment. However, analyses of determinants and their interactions of ES trade-offs/synergies are generally inadequate, especially in Ecological Conservation Red Line (ECRL) areas that maintain national and regional ecological security. Soil conservation (SC), water yield (WY), and carbon sequestration (CS) were simulated in the Beijing ECRL areas. The geographical weighted regression considering local parameters was used to explore the trade-offs/synergies, and the geographical detector utilizing spatial heterogeneity was applied to quantitatively identify their driving factors. Results show that:(1) trade-offs and synergies were present between these three ES in space, and the SC and CS show marked synergies which characterized more than 80% of each ECRL area; (2) in the ECRL areas of Beijing, the synergies of the three pairs of ES was most sensitive to terrain factors. The determinants of the spatial trade-offs between SC and WY, SC and CS, and WY and CS are potential evapotranspiration, precipitation, and temperature, respectively; (3) compounding effects of nonlinear enhancement exists between the environmental factors. The interaction between precipitation and other factors had the greatest explanatory power on the trade-offs/synergies between SC and WY. Precipitation and relief amplitude are the main interactive factors respectively affecting the trade-offs and synergies between SC and CS. The trade-offs and synergies between WY and CS were most sensitive to the interaction between climate factors and terrain factors.

Automated summary

The study reveals that there are trade-offs and synergies between soil conservation, water yield, and carbon sequestration in the ECRL areas of Beijing, with terrain factors having a significant impact on their interactions. Precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, and temperature are the main driving factors affecting the trade-offs between these three ecosystem services.