Land use changes in Zhangjiakou from 2005 to 2025 and the importance of ecosystem services

PeerJ. 2021 Sep 23:9:e12122. doi: 10.7717/peerj.12122. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Changes in local land use affect regional ecological services, development planning, and optimal use of space. We analyzed the effects of changes in land use from 2000 to 2025 on the spatial distribution of ecosystem services using CLUS-S modeling to evaluate ecosystem functions in Zhangjiakou, China. We found that the urban ecosystem area in Zhangjiakou increased and farmland decreased between 2000-2025. Water conservation was relatively high and was concentrated in the nature reserves of southern Zhangjiakou. Soil conservation was mainly distributed in eastern and southern counties. The results of the CLUE-S model showed that the relative operating characteristics of the six land use types were > 0.70, and the logistic regression equation was able to successfully explain the distribution pattern of the different types of land use.

Keywords: Biodiversity; Ecosystem services; Land use; Sandstorm prevention; Water conservation; Zhangjiakou.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Nos. 2016YFC05030042018YFC0506905). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.