Abstract
The Ili-Balkhash Basin in Central Asia is an arid endorheic basin shared by China and Kazakhstan. Population growth, socio-economic development, ecological conservation measures, and climate change have spurred land use and land cover changes and ecosystem services variations. This study used the long-term dataset from 1992 to 2018 to detect the landscape pattern evolution and its association with ecosystem services. The landscape pattern was quantified using landscape metrics, and the GeoDetector model quantified the driving factors of landscape pattern evolution. The ecosystem service value was assessed using the benefit transfer method. The time series trend was identified by the linear regression analysis combined with the Mann–Kendall algorithm, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to confirm the correlation. The temporal dynamics of the landscape pattern indicated the significant conversion of bare land to grassland. Cropland and urban land expanded significantly at the expense of forestland, grassland, and bare land. Various landscape elements tended to be more uniformly distributed across the basin with more regular shape and higher aggregation. The ecosystem service value increased significantly, and its correlation with the landscape pattern varied according to land use and land cover (LULC) types. The weakened shape complexity, the strengthened aggregation degree, and the more uniform distribution of different LULC types helped elevate total ecosystem service value. The results advanced the understanding of landscape pattern evolution and provided the scientific reference for land management regarding ecosystem services. Given the watershed ecosystem’s integrity, transboundary cooperation between China and Kazakhstan was suggested to reinforce watershed sustainability through integrated watershed land resource planning and the joint adaptive strategies to climate change.
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Funding
This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [grant number B200202023]; the Xinjiang Water Program [grant number 2020.E-001.2.4]; the China Scholarship Council [grant number 201906715005]; and the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 42071049].
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Feng Huang: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, software, validation, visualization, writing — original draft. Carlos G. Ochoa: methodology, resources, software, supervision, validation, writing — review and editing. W. Todd Jarvis: methodology, resources, supervision, validation, writing — review and editing. Ruisen Zhong: investigation, resources, validation, funding acquisition. Lidan Guo: funding acquisition, project administration, validation.
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Highlights
• Landscape patterns and ecosystem services changed in the Ili-Balkhash Basin.
• Climate change and anthropogenic activities spurred landscape pattern evolution.
• Landscape pattern evolution affected ecosystem services. Transboundary cooperation is necessary to reinforce watershed sustainability.
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Huang, F., Ochoa, C.G., Jarvis, W.T. et al. Evolution of landscape pattern and the association with ecosystem services in the Ili-Balkhash Basin. Environ Monit Assess 194, 171 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-09836-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-09836-6