Linking ecosystem services and circuit theory to identify ecological security patterns

Jian Peng; Yang Yang; Yanxu Liu; Yi'na Hu; Yueyue Du; Jeroen Meersmans; Sijing Qiu

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.06.292

Linking ecosystem services and circuit theory to identify ecological security patterns

Sci Total Environ. 2018 Dec 10:644:781-790. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.06.292. Epub 2018 Jul 11.

Authors

Jian Peng¹, Yang Yang², Yanxu Liu³, Yi'na Hu³, Yueyue Du³, Jeroen Meersmans⁴, Sijing Qiu³

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Ministry of Education, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; Key Laboratory for Environmental and Urban Sciences, School of Urban Planning & Design, Shenzhen Graduate School, Peking University, Shenzhen 518055, China. Electronic address: jianpeng@urban.pku.edu.cn.
² Key Laboratory for Environmental and Urban Sciences, School of Urban Planning & Design, Shenzhen Graduate School, Peking University, Shenzhen 518055, China.
³ Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Ministry of Education, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
⁴ School of Water, Energy and Environment, Cranfield University, Bedford MK43 0AL, United Kingdom.

PMID: 29990926
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.06.292

Abstract

The rapid process of urbanization, accompanied by the sharp increase of urban population and expansion of artificial surface, has resulted in the loss of natural ecosystems and the degradation of ecosystem services. Identifying and protecting key places that have high importance for ecological sustainability are great challenges. Ecological security patterns are such an integrated approach to protecting regional ecological sustainability. In this study, taking Yunnan Province, China as a case study area, ecological sources were identified through ecosystem services, and circuit theory was used to model ecosystem processes in heterogeneous landscapes via calculating the 'resistance' or 'current', and thus to identify ecological corridors and key ecological nodes. The results showed that, ecological security patterns included 66 ecological sources, 186 ecological corridors, 24 pinch-points and 10 barriers. In details, the ecological sources were mainly distributed in the southwest and northwest of Yunnan Province, with the ecological corridors locating along the high mountains, and both ecological sources and corridors were mostly covered with forest land. Pinch-points covered by forest land and cultivated land, were distributed in the middle of Yunnan Province along the rivers. Approximately 75.9% nature reserves were located in the identified ecological sources, and the remainings were mainly distributed in eastern Yunnan Province with small area, showing the effectiveness in identifying ecological security patterns. Among 81 projects of low-slope hill development carried out in Yunnan Province, 46.9% showed potential human stress on regional ecological security. Based on ecosystem services and circuit theory, this study provides a new approach to identifying the spatial range of ecological corridors and the specific location of key nodes for effective ecological conservation and restoration.

Keywords: Circuit theory; Ecological corridors; Ecological security patterns; Ecosystem services; Pinch-points; Yunnan Province, China.