Remarkable improvement of ecosystem service values promoted by land use/land cover changes on the Yungui Plateau of China during 2001–2020

Quantitative evaluation of the relationship between land use/land cover (LULC) change and ecosystem service values (ESVs) is of great significance for the scientific optimization of land use structure and the formulation of sustainable land use policy, However, the responses of ESVs to LULC changes in fragile ecosystem regions over long time scales and large spatial scopes in the context of ecological restoration measures have seldom been studied. In this study, the Yungui Plateau in China was used as the study region. Based on annual Moderate–Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land cover datasets (MCD12Q1) from 2001 to 2020, using the equivalent coefficient value of ESVs modified for the specific situation of China, and adopting the Getis-Ord Gi* statistic method and Spearman’s rank correlation analysis, the study estimated the values of 11 types of ecosystem services, and analyzed the dynamics of LULC and its impact on ESVs from 2001 to 2020. The results showed that the LULC pattern in the Yungui Plateau changed dramatically in the past two decades, with a significant increase in forestland. The total ESVs improved remarkably from 638.10 billion yuan in 2001 to 746.99 billion yuan in 2020, and was mainly affected by forest restoration and the conversion of grassland to forestland and farmland to grassland. The distribution of ESVs shows obvious spatial and temporal heterogeneity; ESV hot spots were mainly distributed in the edge regions, while ESV cold spots were concentrated on the central and eastern of Yungui Plateau, and the decline in total ESVs still existed and displayed an increasing trend caused by farmland expansion and forestland degradation. Thus, we conclude that the LULC changes caused by ecological restoration measures have a significant positive effect on the improvement of the total ESVs in the Yungui Plateau and suggest that declines in ESVs in local areas should be of high concern in future land use planning and management.