| To gain insight into the advances in Ecosystem Service Assessment in past three decades, we clarified the connotation and definition of Ecosystem Service as well as the scale matters and the limitation of theories from previous research at large scales for decision making at small scales. Combining the context of conservation and utility of Ecosystem Service at village scale of China, the importance and necessity of studying on Ecosystem Service and its contribution to household welfare at village scale were brought up.Three adjacent villages named by Fanggan, Fujiazhuang and Anziwan respectively, located in Laiwu city of Shandong province, were adopted for the case study, since there were very similar natural environment but distinctive developing trajectories from each other of the three villages. In the first place, we innovated the methods of valuating micro-climate adjustment service of forest at small scale in temperate zone using recoding data of temperature and rainfall at five meteorological stations within and surrounding studied area during2010-2012. The results showed a higher value of microclimate adjustment of forest at village scale than most of previous studies at global and regional scales. Using the direct market approaches, we evaluated the Ecosystem Service Values of the three villages in total and per hectare. Fanggan village who took ecotourism as the first industry hold much more ecosystem Service Values in total and per hectare than the other two villages. Fujiazhuang who took commerce and food processing as main industries hold more Ecosystem Service Value than Anziwan village who took conventional farming as predominant industry. Furthermore we compared the structural differences of Ecosystem Service among the three villages. Fanggan village presented a particularly high value of recreation, but both the other two villages documented a higher value of provision. Otherwise we analyzed quantitatively the relationship among Ecosystem Service, development model and the household welfare combining Questionnaire Survey and interview with15-20households from each village. All of the three villages gained more than40percent of their economic welfare from Ecosystem Service, but the households in Fanggan village enjoyed much more economic welfare as well as more ecological safety welfare from Ecosystem Service. The development model may have remarkable positive or negative impacts on Ecosystem Service and the household welfare at village scale under different scenarios of decision making.To sum up, the importance of Ecosystem Service to household welfare at village scale has been demonstrated and highlighted using quantitatively assessment of Ecosystem Service and its contribution to the households’economic and ecological welfare. On the other hand, the results and conclusions of this work would be helpful and considerable for decision makers who have to balance and integrate the utility and conservation of Ecosystem Service at village scale. |
