Aligning ecosystem service flows with biodiversity in systematic conservation planning

Understanding the spatial flows of ecosystem services (ESs) by linking their supply to demand areas is critical for cost-effective spatial planning of prioritization conservation. However, studies on spatial conservation priority based on synthetic analyses of biodiversity and ES flows remain limited. This study combined spatial prioritization with a systematic conservation framework by accounting for biodiversity and the intra-regional flows of three water-related services (i.e., water retention, flood mitigation, soil retention) as well as environmental pressures. As a case study, we focused on the Black River Basin in Shaanxi province, China. We found that accounting for ES flows led to 20.3 – 32.6% reduction of biophysical service provision with respect to the potential values. Less than 7% of the basin area was featured with blocked or isolated flows which precluded the delivery of ESs to downstream beneficiaries. Priority analysis revealed both synergies and trade-offs at the interface of conservation for biodiversity and ES flows, with a spatial congruence identified for 26.2% of the basin area, suggesting that these areas played key roles in securing both conservation targets. Our results highlight the importance of incorporating ES flows into spatial prioritization with multiple conservation targets at a location, facilitating the improvement of human well-being through systematic conservation planning.