Effects of agricultural land consolidation on ecosystem services: Trade-offs and synergies

Abstract Agricultural land consolidation (ALC) has been used as an important and efficient development tool to improve agricultural production worldwide for decades, with numerous impacts on the ecological environment. How to coordinate the tradeoff relationships of agricultural production and other ecosystem services is a great challenge. Taking Jianxi Watershed in Fujian Province as an example, it was estimated three ecosystem services (crop production capacity, carbon storage, and soil conservation) and quantified the synergies and trade-offs among these three ecosystem services. Twenty-three factors were used to evaluate the influential mechanism of ALC on synergies and trade-offs between ecosystem services. The results demonstrated that (1) from 2010 to 2016, the relationship between crop production capacity and carbon storage evolved from a synergistic to a trade-off relationship, while that between crop production capacity and soil conservation developed from a trade-off to a synergistic relationship; (2) after ALC, the strength of trade-offs between crop production capacity and soil conservation decreased from 0.354 to 0.198. However, the strength of trade-offs between soil conservation and carbon storage and that between crop production capacity and carbon storage increased from 0.302 to 0.322; and (3) the trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services changed due to changes in ALC measures. Finally, some suggestions of ALC measures were put forward to promote balanced and efficient development of various ecosystem services. ALC, considering trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services, and if applied sensitively, may be an instrument for delivering sustainable rural development in a wider context.