Multiscale ecosystem service synergies/trade-offs and their driving mechanisms in the Han River Basin, China: implications for watershed management

The synergies and trade-offs between ecosystem services (ESs) and their driving mechanisms are hot topics in ecology and geography research. In recent years, the Han River Basin (HRB) has been continuously impacted by high-intensity urban sprawl and the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, which have posed severe threats to the ecology and regional stability along the route. It is thus critical to study the ES synergies/trade-offs and their driving mechanisms. Based on the InVEST model and the value coefficient method, four vital types of ESs in the HRB, i.e., carbon sequestration (CS), food supply (FS), net primary productivity (NPP), and water yield (WY), were evaluated at town, county, and sub-watershed scales. Then, the Pearson correlation analysis was adopted to quantify the interrelationship among different ESs. Finally, the ordinary least squares (OLS) and geographical detector model (GDM) were applied to reveal the driving mechanisms of the ES synergies/trade-offs. The results showed that (1) apart from NPP, which increased at a rate of 7.54 gC·m −2 ·a −1 during 2000–2018, the other three types of ESs in the HRB deteriorated, with WY almost halving. (2) While CS, FS, and WY tended to exhibit high synergistic relationships, NPP showed mostly trade-off relationships, and the evaluation scale did not affect those main relationships. (3) Precipitation is the strongest driving force for the ES synergies/trade-offs in the HRB, and natural factors are generally more influential than socioeconomic factors on the ES synergies/trade-offs. This study warns of the deteriorating ecological condition of the HRB and provides empirical evidence for the synergistic enhancement of regional ESs and the optimization of ecological management policies.