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Using palaeolimnological data and historical records to assess long-term dynamics of ecosystem services in typical Yangtze shallow lakes (China)

Using palaeolimnological data and historical records to assess long-term dynamics of ecosystem services in typical Yangtze shallow lakes (China)
Using palaeolimnological data and historical records to assess long-term dynamics of ecosystem services in typical Yangtze shallow lakes (China)

Understanding the dynamics of ecosystem services (ESs) is crucial for sustainable resource management. Palaeolimnological records have a great potential to reveal long-term variations and dynamic interactions in ESs, especially supporting/regulating services, which are not easily quantified by documentary records. To elucidate the variations between eight important ESs in shallow lake ecosystems, we combined documentary records with palaeolimnological proxies (covering the past 100 years) from two typical lakes (Lakes Taibai and Zhangdu) of the Yangtze River basin. Although all supporting services and some provisioning services have increased, the regulating services of the two lakes have markedly declined, in particular since the 1950s. Human activities, including hydrological intervention, nutrient input and land-use change, were identified as the main factors behind the observed variations. Both in Lake Taibai and Zhangdu, primary production and biodiversity (supporting services) have increased (synergies), whereas climate and water purification (regulating services) have significantly decreased (tradeoffs) since the 1950s when attempts were made by the local population to reach a higher land/fish ESs level. By considering long-term records, dynamic tradeoff and synergy relationship between various ESs relative to different types of human “modification” in a temporal perspective, we suggest valuable information can be gained in future lake management initiatives.

Ecosystem service, Human activity, Palaeolimnology, Synergy, Tradeoff, Yangtze River
0048-9697
791-802
Xu, Min
54cc2f17-f40e-4477-86e6-42751e7dbff6
Dong, Xuhui
d6e244b3-d85d-4528-a78a-e25dee6a6852
Yang, Xiangdong
7fb74be0-db37-442a-bf12-9ce6018f41fb
Wang, Rong
d87aad80-4e91-404c-bc22-5a591ceee83c
Zhang, Ke
9b177bde-dcfc-4b25-a383-20e373a7aa78
Zhao, Yanjie
84baf146-1a1f-46a7-9c03-66e5dfb68401
Davidson, Thomas A.
f9b8bc3e-0a49-4877-aa04-afe97b77675b
Jeppesen, Erik
2e1dac9a-43ee-4bd2-aaf0-77c722b089ae
Xu, Min
54cc2f17-f40e-4477-86e6-42751e7dbff6
Dong, Xuhui
d6e244b3-d85d-4528-a78a-e25dee6a6852
Yang, Xiangdong
7fb74be0-db37-442a-bf12-9ce6018f41fb
Wang, Rong
d87aad80-4e91-404c-bc22-5a591ceee83c
Zhang, Ke
9b177bde-dcfc-4b25-a383-20e373a7aa78
Zhao, Yanjie
84baf146-1a1f-46a7-9c03-66e5dfb68401
Davidson, Thomas A.
f9b8bc3e-0a49-4877-aa04-afe97b77675b
Jeppesen, Erik
2e1dac9a-43ee-4bd2-aaf0-77c722b089ae

Xu, Min, Dong, Xuhui, Yang, Xiangdong, Wang, Rong, Zhang, Ke, Zhao, Yanjie, Davidson, Thomas A. and Jeppesen, Erik (2017) Using palaeolimnological data and historical records to assess long-term dynamics of ecosystem services in typical Yangtze shallow lakes (China). Science of the Total Environment, 584-585, 791-802. (doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.01.118).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Understanding the dynamics of ecosystem services (ESs) is crucial for sustainable resource management. Palaeolimnological records have a great potential to reveal long-term variations and dynamic interactions in ESs, especially supporting/regulating services, which are not easily quantified by documentary records. To elucidate the variations between eight important ESs in shallow lake ecosystems, we combined documentary records with palaeolimnological proxies (covering the past 100 years) from two typical lakes (Lakes Taibai and Zhangdu) of the Yangtze River basin. Although all supporting services and some provisioning services have increased, the regulating services of the two lakes have markedly declined, in particular since the 1950s. Human activities, including hydrological intervention, nutrient input and land-use change, were identified as the main factors behind the observed variations. Both in Lake Taibai and Zhangdu, primary production and biodiversity (supporting services) have increased (synergies), whereas climate and water purification (regulating services) have significantly decreased (tradeoffs) since the 1950s when attempts were made by the local population to reach a higher land/fish ESs level. By considering long-term records, dynamic tradeoff and synergy relationship between various ESs relative to different types of human “modification” in a temporal perspective, we suggest valuable information can be gained in future lake management initiatives.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 18 January 2017
e-pub ahead of print date: 26 January 2017
Published date: 15 April 2017
Keywords: Ecosystem service, Human activity, Palaeolimnology, Synergy, Tradeoff, Yangtze River

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 434845
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/434845
ISSN: 0048-9697
PURE UUID: d07c7ab9-68d1-4088-b746-830c31244e8d
ORCID for Yanjie Zhao: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-9307-8138

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 11 Oct 2019 16:30
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 12:35

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Contributors

Author: Min Xu
Author: Xuhui Dong
Author: Xiangdong Yang
Author: Rong Wang
Author: Ke Zhang
Author: Yanjie Zhao ORCID iD
Author: Thomas A. Davidson
Author: Erik Jeppesen

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