Yellow River Institute of Shaanxi Province, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northwest University, Xi'an 710127, China; Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Earth Surface System and Environmental Carrying Capacity, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northwest University, Xi'an 710127, China.
Yellow River Institute of Shaanxi Province, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northwest University, Xi'an 710127, China; Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2024 Nov 15;951:175674. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.175674. Epub 2024 Aug 20.
Maintaining ecosystem health (EH) in watersheds is crucial for building a national pattern of ecological security. However, a comprehensive diagnosis of watershed EH and an exploration of its driving mechanisms are still lacking. This study proposed an EH assessment model from a vitality-organization-resilience-service-environment (VORSE) perspective. Taking the Yellow River Basin of Shaanxi Province (YRBS), China, as a research object, the spatiotemporal evolution trend of EH from 2000 to 2020 was quantified. At the same time, we also quantified the respective contributions of climate change (CC) and human activities (HA) to the EH dynamics based on residual analysis. The results showed that EH in the YRBS increased by 11.80 % from 2000 to 2020, and the spatial distribution of the EH was higher in the southern region than in the northern part. At the pixel scale, areas with improving trends accounted for 90.57 % of the YRBS, while 9.43 % deteriorated, with the improving areas mainly in northern Shaanxi and the deteriorating areas in the Guanzhong region. The correlation between the EH and precipitation was primarily positive, while the correlation between the EH and temperature was mainly negative. The residual analysis showed that the contribution rate of CC to EH changes was 78.54 %, while that of HA was 21.46 %, indicating that CC was the dominant driver of EH changes in the YRBS. Specifically, 82.64 % of the improvement in EH was attributed to CC and 17.36 % to HA. Conversely, 65.30 % of the deterioration in EH was attributed to CC and 34.70 % to HA. Furthermore, CC, HA, and CC&HA dominated EH changes in 26.85 %, 3.77 %, and 69.38 % of the YRBS area, respectively. In addition, the Hurst exponent analysis identified six types of future EH development scenarios, each requiring different restoration strategies. This study provides valuable insights for future EH diagnosis, EH restoration efforts, and the formulation of sustainable development goals in other watersheds.
维护流域生态系统健康（EH）对于构建国家生态安全格局至关重要。然而，流域 EH 的综合诊断及其驱动机制的探索仍然不足。本研究从活力-组织-弹性-服务-环境（VORSE）的角度提出了一个 EH 评估模型。以中国陕西黄河流域（YRBS）为研究对象，量化了 2000 年至 2020 年 EH 的时空演变趋势。同时，我们还基于残差分析量化了气候变化（CC）和人类活动（HA）对 EH 动态的各自贡献。结果表明，YRBS 的 EH 从 2000 年到 2020 年增加了 11.80%，EH 的空间分布在南部地区高于北部地区。在像素尺度上，改善趋势的面积占 YRBS 的 90.57%，而恶化的面积占 9.43%，改善的地区主要在陕北，恶化的地区在关中地区。EH 与降水的相关性主要为正，而与温度的相关性主要为负。残差分析表明，CC 对 EH 变化的贡献率为 78.54%，HA 的贡献率为 21.46%，表明 CC 是 YRBS EH 变化的主要驱动因素。具体来说，EH 改善的 82.64%归因于 CC，17.36%归因于 HA。相反，EH 恶化的 65.30%归因于 CC，34.70%归因于 HA。此外，CC、HA 和 CC&HA 分别主导了 YRBS 面积的 26.85%、3.77%和 69.38%的 EH 变化。此外，Hurst 指数分析确定了未来 EH 发展的六种情景类型，每种情景都需要不同的恢复策略。本研究为未来的 EH 诊断、EH 恢复工作以及其他流域可持续发展目标的制定提供了有价值的见解。
