The tradeoff and synergy between ecosystem services in the Grain-for-Green areas in Northern Shaanxi, China

• We proposed a simple and feasible framework for quantitatively assessing the benefits and balance of the consequences of the GFGP.
• Synergies between regulation services and tradeoffs between provision–regulation services were identified.
• Arbors exert a relatively strong influence on soil conservation and atmospheric carbon regulation.
• Shrubs have a stronger inhibiting effect on surface water yield in a long-term evolution.
• Regional-scale vegetation restoration should mainly aim at woody plants.

As an important part of the strategy of Western development, the Grain-for-Green Program (GFGP) was initiated to protect the environment and mitigate disasters. Ecosystem services and their dynamics are considered emerging features of ecological quality and the change in direction by many scholars and practitioners. Extending from ecosystem services (ESs) modeling, we propose a simple and feasible framework for quantitatively assessing the benefits and equilibrium of the consequences of the GFGP. Our starting evaluation shows that ESs has changed dramatically in the GFGP area. By fitting pair-wise ESs’ spatial concordances at the grid-cell level, we have revealed the tradeoffs between provisioning and regulating services and the synergies between the regulating services. The analysis of the variability of the relationship between ESs on different land cover types clearly identifies the vegetation that has produced exceptionally strong ESs. Our findings suggest that quantifying the interactions between ESs may improve the ecosystem-based management practices and support policy-making to address the challenges of the sustainable use of natural resources. The framework designed for regional-scale analysis can help in clearly understanding the interrelations of ESs and make natural resources related decisions more effective and efficient, although this framework still needs to move beyond these fundamental and illustrative analyses to more fully explain the synergies and tradeoffs.