Study on the Constraint Effect of Vegetation on Ecosystem Services in the Yellow River Basin

Abstract

Ecosystem services (ESs) serve as the foundation for sustaining human life and development, with vegetation status playing a crucial role in influencing the supply of these services. This study focuses on the Yellow River Basin (YRB), where we quantitatively examined the main ESs indicators from 2010 to 2020. We explored the trends in fractional vegetation cover (FVC) and ESs, as well as the constraint relationship between FVC and total ecosystem services (TES). The findings are as follows. (1) From 2010 to 2020, FVC, landscape aesthetics (LA), soil conservation (SC), food production (FP), and TES in the YRB demonstrated an upward trend, whereas water yield (WY) exhibited a downward trend. (2) A constraint relationship exists between FVC and LA, SC, WY, and TES, with the constraint line taking on a hump-like shape. (3) The threshold value of the constraint line between FVC and LA, SC, WY, and TES are approximately 80%. Below this value, FVC does not impose a constraint effect on LA, SC, WY, and TES, but above 80%, a strong constraint effect emerges, leading to a reduction in LA, SC, WY, and TES. These results offer a valuable data reference for guiding future vegetation restoration and ecological engineering efforts in the region.