Study On Synergistic Conservation Of Plant Diversity And Ecosystem Services

Biodiversity and ecosystem services are important foundations for the survival and development of human society.They play an irreplaceable role.However,the rapid development of human society has led to the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem services.Understanding the relationship between biodiversity,especially plant diversity,and ecosystem services is of great significance for identifying hotspots and spatial conservation planning for pant diversity and ecosystem services.However,a large number of existing studies on ecosystem services mostly used indirect methods such as habitat quality model to assess biodiversity.This cannot reveal the direct relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem services from the dimension of species.Taking the core zone,buffer zone and experimental zone of Laoshan Nature Reserve as the research area,the abundance and spatial distribution of plant diversity were analyzed through field investigation.The IUEMS platform was used to conduct a detailed assessment of six categories of ecosystem services including climate maintain,water conservation,carbon sequestration,oxygen release,soil retention,and reduce silting.The cultural tourism service was assessed using market valuation method.The levels and spatial distribution patterns of plant diversity and ecosystem services in Laoshan Nature Reserve were revealed,and the distribution hotspots and cold spots of plant diversity and ecosystem services were identified.Based on the correlation analysis of plant diversity and ecosystem services,the trade-offs and synergistic spatial relationships between the all indicators have been analyzed.The main results are as below.(1)A total of 195 species of vascular plants,belonging to 140 genera of 65 families,and 134 species of wild plants were recorded in all investigated plots,including 3 species of national key protected plants.The plant diversity in the southeast of the reserve was significantly higher than that in the northwest,so more strict protection measures need to be implemented in the northwest of the reserve.There is no significant difference among core area,buffer area and experimental area,so we should pay attention to the plant protection in the experimental area.(2)In 2020,the total economic value of seven ecosystem services including climate regulation,water conservation,carbon sequestration,oxygen production,soil conservation,sedimentation reduction,and cultural tourism is about 2.38 billion RMB.The ecosystem service values per unit area of the core area and buffer area are significantly higher than that of the experimental area.Among them,the value of the buffer area is the highest at 74,400 yuan/ha.Although there are significant differences in the unit area value of ecosystem services such as water conservation,carbon sequestration and oxygen production between the southeast and the northwest parts of the reserve,there is no significant difference in the total value of ecosystem services per unit area.(3)From the perspective of Shannon winner diversity index and Pielou evenness index,there is a spatial synergistic relationship between plant diversity and ecosystem services such as climate regulation,carbon sequestration,and oxygen production.From the perspective of different growth types of plants,arbor plants are the main providers of ecosystem services such as climate regulation and carbon sequestration.Within ecosystem services,there are synergistic relationships between climate regulation and carbon sequestration,climate regulation and oxygen production,carbon sequestration and oxygen production,soil conservation and sediment deposition reduction.There is a trade-off between water conservation and soil conservation and reducing sediment deposition.(4)Plant diversity hotspots are mostly located in the southeast of the reserve,scattered in the core zone,buffer zone and experimental zone,while the cold spots are mainly concentrated in the northwest of the reserve.The hotspots of ecosystem services are concentrated in the core zone and the buffer zone,indicating that the core area and the buffer area can better protect ecosystem services while protecting biodiversity.However,the hotspots of plant diversity and ecosystem services do not completely overlap,and there are also some hotspots with rich plant diversity in the experimental area.Therefore,more attention should be paid to the protection of plant diversity in the experimental area.This paper preliminarily established a method to analyze the spatial relationship between plant diversity and ecosystem services using direct indicators of biodiversity,and further reveal the trade-offs and synergistic relationships between the related indicatiors.Based on the spatial pattern and relationships of plant diversity and ecosystem services,the hotspots and cold spots for plant diversity and ecosystem services have been identified successfully.The main fingdings may shed light on sygernic protection of plant diversiy and ecosystem services of protected areas,as well as the spatial conservation planning of Laoshan Nature Reserve.