Ecosystem service function evaluation: A case study of the yinchuan basin in China

With the acceleration of the Yinchuan Basin's rapid economic and social development and urbanization, humans are continually enhancing the production of some services at the expense of others. This paper aimed to estimate the changes in ecosystem service and the relationship between carbon sequestration, wind prevention and sand fixation and water retention in the Yinchuan Basin of China.These ecosystem service were of great importance to healthy development of the study area and the least-square fitting of the orthogonal polynomials was applied to evaluate the relationship between these ecosystem service. The results suggest that the highest carbon sequestration, wind prevention and sand fixation, and water retention value were distributed in the middle of the Yinchuan Basin. Water retention was the main water source for farmland, and wind prevention and sand fixation were generally enhanced during 1993-2014. Futhuemore, there were synergistic relationships between carbon sequestration, wind prevention and sand fixation, and water retention under three ecosystem services.