Impacts of land-use change on valued ecosystem service in rapidly urbanized North China Plain

Land-use change is a major factor driving ecosystem service change. Measuring the ecosystem service variation in response to land-use change is an effective way to assess the environmental costs and benefits of different approaches to policy-based planning. In the present study, we examined the changes in value of the ecosystem services (VES) in the North China Plain (NCP), which is an agricultural region, producing over 35% of the total grain in China, and estimated the changes of VES resulting from land-use change. A model mainly based on net primary productivity (NPP) and soil erosion amount was developed to assess the VES. The results show that the total VES of the NCP increased by $ 21.61 billion in 2000 USD during 2000-2008. However, the land-use change led to a net loss of VES by 0.08 billion USD. The expansion of built-up areas contributed to 84.61% of the loss of VES caused by land-use change. The increase of NPP mainly accounted for the increase of VES since it significantly improved the ecosystem service functions of gas regulation, nutrient cycling, and organic material provision. Overall, compared to other factors, land-use change only accounted for 0.35% of VES change during 2000-2008 in NCP.