Trade-offs and synergies of ecosystem services in the hilly purple soil area of southwestern China: Implications for sustainable land management

The hilly purple soil area is a major grain-producing region in southwestern China, where noticeable land use change has occurred along with socio-economic development over recent decades. Degradation of ecosystem services (ESs) is therefore widespread. Understanding the interactions among ESs in the case of anthropogenic disturbance and environmental change is needed for sustainable land management. Here, we analyze the synergies/trade-offs and bundles between ESs in this region between 1990-2015. By using the InVEST model, Geo-Detector method, and multi-source datasets, we investigated the socio-ecological drivers that dominate the dynamics of ESs. We found that ESs exhibit divergent temporal trends; food production shows a rising trend, habitat quality a declining trend, and water yield a highly variable response. Provisioning services, especially food production, have common and enduring trade-offs with other ESs. Mutual transformation occurred between ES bundles with water related ES bundles experiencing a weakness in synergistic effects. ESs that are predominantly driven by ecological drivers have gradually become controlled by social drivers which suggests the impacts of human activities in ESs are gradually increasing. Thus, integrated management policies such as land consolidation are needed to coordinate management. This study provides strategies based on ES bundles with different functional and management priorities. Also, integrating vertical zoning into land management to ensure sustainable agricultural production in lowland basins.