Assessment of Ecosystem Services and Ecological Regionalization of Grasslands Support Establishment of Ecological Security Barriers in Northern China

Subjects: Other Disciplines >> Synthetic discipline submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《中国科学院院刊》

白永飞 赵玉金 王扬 周楷玲

Abstract： Grassland ecosystems of Northern China, the headwaters region and water resource conservation areas for the Yellow River, the Yangzi River, the Lancang River, and the Luanhe River, are important ecological security barriers in China. They play extremely important roles in maintaining multiple ecosystem functions and services and sustaining multinational cultural diversity. However, the grassland ecosystems of Northern China have experienced widespread deterioration in functions and services since the last several decades due to the overexploitation of production functions at the cost of their ecological functions. Therefore, assessment of ecosystem services and ecological regionalization of grasslands in Northern China are needed for optimizing their production functions and ecological functions, establishing ecological security barriers, and achieving ecological civilization. Based on the spatial patterns of key ecosystem services and environmental conditions, we propose seven ecoregions and twenty-five sub-ecoregions across grassland ecosystems in Northern China. The ecological regionalization of grasslands can be used to guide sustainable grassland management, restoration of degraded grasslands, and biodiversity conservation in Northern China.

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