Spatial and temporal changes in ecosystem service values in karst areas in southwestern China based on land use changes

Ecological restoration projects have great impacts on ecosystem service values (ESVs) in China. However, it is still unclear how the temporal and spatial characteristics of ESVs in karst areas in southwestern China changed before and after the implementation of some ecological restoration projects. Land use data from five phases between 1980 and 2018 were used in combination with socioeconomic data of karst areas in southwestern China. The equivalent factor method and spatial, autocorrelation analysis method were used to study the temporal and spatial distributions of ESVs. The results show that (1) the conversion of land use types mainly consisted of the conversion of cultivated lands to woodlands, grasslands, and water areas, and from grasslands to woodlands, construction lands, and wetlands; (2) from 1980 to 2018, the overall trend of ESVs in the study area first decreased and then increased; the ESVs increased by 19.62 billion yuan, with a growth rate of 0.35%, and changes in water areas were the main reason for the ESVs increase, while changes in the areas of woodlands and wetlands were the second reason for the ESVs increase; (3) in terms of its spatial distribution, the ESVs was higher in the southwest direction, while in other areas, from west to east, the ESVs generally showed a spatial distribution pattern of "high-low-high-low"; and (4) the ESVs in the study area had significant, positive autocorrelations in its spatial distribution from 1980 to 2018. The spatial aggregation of ESVs among cities mainly included aggregations of spatially similar values. The results of this study provide reference data for ecological infrastructure construction and ecological-economic development in karst areas in southwestern China.