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• The RMSE indicator flexible and intuitive express the trade-offs between multiple ESs. • Trade-offs varied greatly among the different ES pairs in mountain regions. • Large discrepancies exist in the mountain ESs along the elevation, VCF and precipitation. • The mechanisms underlying the changes of these trade-offs have been explored. Mountain ecosystems provide a variety of important ecosystem services (ESs) to humanity; however, the variation in multiple mountain ESs and the trade-off relationships among mountain ESs remain largely unknown. In this study, we took the Taihang Mountains as the study area and used the root mean square error (RMSE) method to quantify the trade-offs among multiple mountain ESs. Our results showed that net primary production (NPP), soil conservation (SC) and habitat quality (HQ) increased significantly with increasing elevation and vegetation cover fraction (VCF), whereas water yield (WY) did not. In addition, the trade-offs among different ES pairs had different sensitivities to changes in elevation, VCF and precipitation. As the elevation and VCF increased, the trade-offs between WY and NPP and WY and HQ increased significantly. As the precipitation increased, the trade-offs between SC and NPP, WY and NPP, HQ and SC, and WY and HQ all decreased significantly. In addition, the trade-offs among these four ESs were lowest in mid-elevation, high-VCF and low-mean annual precipitation (MAP) areas. This study could improve our current understanding of mountain ESs and help ES management for the Taihang Mountains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Trade-off scores were higher in mountainous areas than that in relatively flat areas. • The strength of association between drivers and ESs shows high spatial heterogeneity. • When diverse drivers involved in, the direction of correlations may be different. • The complex relationships mainly caused by shared and dominant drivers of ESs. Ecosystem services (ESs), as important indicators for ecosystem conditions, are always interacted complexly, however, the underlying mechanisms remain not fully understood. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region is a typical example of this complexity and is one of the most populous regions globally. In this study, we take the BTH region as the study area and try to identify the spatiotemporally complex relationships and dominant drivers of ESs, by utilizing multiple methods: Pearson correlation analysis, partial correlation analysis and the GeoDetector method. Three critically important ESs: soil erosion, water yield, and net primary production (NPP) are simulated for the period of 2000 to 2018. The results show that the Pearson correlation coefficient indicated a synergistic relationship between soil erosion and water yield and between water yield and NPP and a trade-off relationship between soil erosion and NPP, while the partial correlation analysis using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and precipitation as controlling factors showed that the relationships between soil erosion and water yield and between water yield and NPP were transformed to trade-offs. We confirmed that the drivers (especially the shared drivers and dominant drivers of each ecosystem service) played important roles in the direction of complex relationships; when different factors were involved in the relationships, the direction of positive or negative relationships may be diverse. Furthermore, the slope (q = 0.32), precipitation (q = 0.42) and NDVI (q = 0.72) were the dominant factors for soil erosion, water yield and NPP, respectively. The power of determinants for ESs showed high spatial heterogeneity in different geomorphological types due to differences in each type of inner characteristic; for example, the q value of slope for soil erosion decreased with increasing mountain relief, but the q value of NDVI increased. In addition, the trade-off degree among the three ESs was spatially heterogeneous; in mountainous areas the trade-off scores were much higher than those in relatively flat areas. Our general approaches and results provide useful references for researchers and policy makers to understand the mechanisms governing complex relationships among ESs and to manage ESs by manipulating these drivers to enhance synergies or weaken trade-offs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Six ecosystem services (ESs) and the relationships among them were analysed. • The relationships among the same types of ESs differed in different bundles of ESs. • Trade-offs and synergies among bundled ESs were heterogeneous and nonlinear. • There were all-win and zero-sum exceptions of trade-offs among bundled ESs. Understanding the relationships among multiple ecosystem services (ESs) is crucial for the sustainability of natural capital and ESs. The objective of this paper was to explore the antagonistic and synergistic relationships among ESs in their respective ESs bundles (ESBs) from the perspectives of heterogeneity and nonlinearity. Six ESs were quantified using different models, and the relationships among ESs were analysed by combining spatial mapping and statistical methods in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) urban agglomeration. Our results showed that the spatially concordant supply of regulating services and cultural services decreased from northwest to southeast, whereas the delivery of provisioning services exhibited a distinct spatial pattern and decreased from southeast to northwest in the region. Different combinations of ecosystems provided seven types of ESBs with different compositions and quantities of ESs. The trade-offs and synergies among the ESs in the different ESBs had similarities and differences in both the types of ESs and their intensities. The provisioning service was synergistic with the other ESs in some ESBs, and the relationships among the regulating services and among the regulating services and the cultural service could be antagonistic in other ESBs. Within each ESB, the trade-offs and synergies among the bundled ESs showed spatially heterogeneous changes across the simplified landscapes, and the provision of the involved ESs displayed different nonlinear responses along the productivity gradients. There were different all-win and zero-sum exceptions for the trade-offs involving different ESs in each ESB, with the former indicating the possibilities of mitigating trade-offs and the latter demonstrating the detrimental effects of severe trade-offs. According to our findings, we suggested that the features of ES delivery and their relationships should be considered to ensure the effectiveness, efficiency and equity of the spatially targeted management of natural capital and ESs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freshwater ecosystem service is essential to human’s survival and development. Many studies have documented the spatial differences in the supply and demand of ecosystem services and proposed the concept of ecosystem services flows. However, few studies characterize freshwater ecosystem service flow quantitatively. Therefore, our paper aims to quantify the effects of freshwater ecosystem service flow on downstream areas. We developed a freshwater ecosystem service flow model and applied it in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region, China, for the year of 2000, 2005, and 2010. We assessed the regional water security with an improved freshwater security index by integrating freshwater service provision, consumption and flow; and found that most areas of the BTH region (69.2%) were affected by upstream freshwater flows. The areas achieving water security in the region also expanded to 66.9%, 66.1%, and 71.3%, which were 6.4%, 6.8% and 5.7% increments compared to no-flow situation, in 2000, 2005 and 2010, respectively. Setting quota for human water consumption is suggested to further improve water security. These results highlight the need to fully understand the connections between distant freshwater ecosystem service provision and local freshwater ecosystem service consumption. This approach may also help managers to choose more sustainable strategies for critical freshwater resource management across different regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem service is widely acknowledged as a mainstream and valuable concept for the sustainability-oriented decision-makings on meeting the fundamental needs for improving human well-being and addressing the critical challenges such as food scarcity, land degradation, climate warming, biodiversity loss, flood risk and population pressure. Different ecosystem services arise through combinations of social-ecological drivers and interact with each other across scales. Essential to design effective policy interventions toward achieving sustainability is clarifying the relationships among ecosystem services and the underlying drivers at different scales. Therefore, this study analysed the spatial patterns and relationships of six ecosystem service supplies and examined their responses to ten social-ecological drivers at three spatial scales in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in 2015. Our results revealed differences in ecosystem service spatial pattern robustness across scales. The trade-offs and synergies between ecosystem services changed less in direction and more in strength at the three scales. The relationships between the provisioning service and the other ecosystem services were mostly antagonistic, and those between the regulating services and cultural service were predominately synergistic. Different types of ecosystem service bundles comprising different abundances of services were detected, and reconfiguration of ecosystem service bundles occurred as the scale changed. The directions of social-ecological drivers' impacts varied across ecosystem services, and the magnitudes of social-ecological drivers' impacts on the services varied at different scales. Across the three spatial scales, the most influential driver of ecosystem services was the normalized difference vegetation index, to which different ecosystem services responded diversely and non-linearly. Our results advocated the multiscale assessment of ecosystem services and social-ecological drivers and emphasized the necessity of embracing scale dependency in the hierarchical governance of ecosystem services. Image 1 • The trade-offs and synergies between ecosystem services (ESs) changed with scale. • Reconfiguration of ESs bundles occurred as the spatial scale increased. • The magnitudes of social-ecological drivers' impacts on ESs varied with scale. • Different ESs responded non-linearly to the normalized difference vegetation index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Ecological restoration should consider both effects on ecosystem service supply and trade-offs. • Four ecosystem services supply and trade-offs were analyzed under six restoration scenarios. • Restoration of the case study area improved all service supplies, even compared to the reference. • But higher service supply improvements and lower trade-off intensities are still possible. Ecological restoration is becoming increasingly important in addressing the global crisis of ecosystem degradation. Ecosystem services, as a concept that connects people and natural ecosystems, can be incorporated into the design, practice and evaluation of restoration projects to promote both the socioeconomic and ecological effects of restoration. However, the full incorporation of ecosystem services in landscape-scale restoration projects is still greatly lacking. In this study, we used the Dashihe mine tailings restoration project in Hebei, China, as a case study and analyzed data from field surveys, remote sensing and literature reviews to study the following two questions: 1) How would multiple ecosystem service supply capabilities and their tradeoffs change after ecological restoration; 2) How can multiple ecosystem service supply capabilities be maximized while minimizing their tradeoffs? The supply capabilities of four important ecosystem services (i.e., soil retention, dust deposition, carbon sequestration and habitat maintenance) and their tradeoff intensities under six restoration scenarios were quantified and compared. The results showed that restored ecosystems outperformed unrestored and even the reference conditions in terms of ecosystem service supply enhancement. However, there is still much room for improvement compared to the recommended restoration scenario. The recommended scenario could result in both higher service supplies and lower tradeoff intensities among the services. On this basis, we call for more incorporation of ecosystem service supply and tradeoff analysis in future ecological restoration projects to reverse the declining trends of ecosystem services across the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing relationships among ecosystem service supplies and demands and manipulating certain drivers to maintain well-balanced ecosystem service suites are key challenges for ensuring sustainable social-ecological systems. However, comprehensive research on the spatial relationships and determinants of ecosystem service supply-demand mismatches remains rare. Therefore, we assessed trade-offs and synergies among bundled ecosystem service supply-demand balances and their underlying drivers in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Four distinct ecosystem service bundles revealed diverse ecosystem service supply-demand mismatches among different locations associated with various trade-offs and synergies. Building weighted networks specifically for different bundles promoted innovative understandings of the emergent properties of ecosystem services and unveiled the topological ecosystem service differences, synergistic interdependences among these services and essential umbrella ecosystem services for improving multiple ecosystem service supply-demand states. Social factors severely increased ecosystem service deficits in some bundles, while biophysical factors more critically improved ecosystem service surpluses in other bundles. Besides, the similar nonlinear responses of both the overall supply-demand states of multiple services and the supply-demand relationships of umbrella ecosystem services to their shared drivers in most bundles further supported the important roles of umbrella services in improving ecosystem service multifunctionality. Our study emphasized the significance of considering the spatial relationships and drivers of ecosystem service supply-demand mismatches when targeting effective spatial policies for realizing the sustainability of social-ecological systems and could provide useful guidance for addressing complex human-nature interdependencies. [Display omitted] • Relationships among and drivers of ecosystem service (ES) budgets were analysed. • Topological differences among bundled ES budgets were explored by network analysis. • Synergistic interdependence among bundled ES supply-demand relations was revealed. • Umbrella ESs lied at the heart of managing supply-demand relations of multiple ESs. • Social-ecological drivers had contrasting and nonlinear impacts on ES budgets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]