Spatiotemporal evolution and trade-offs/synergies of ecosystem services in Hubei Province

With the advancement of economic globalization, human activities have continuously disrupted the ecosystem, affecting its structure and function. On the basis of the characteristics of the spatial variations in ecosystem services, the systematic estimation of long-term ecosystem services and the analysis of trade-offs/synergies between different ecosystem services have practical significance for the coordination of economic development and ecological protection. In this study, we employed correlation analysis methods and spatial autocorrelation analysis methods to investigate the heterogeneity and nonlinearity of the trade-off/collaboration relationships among different types of ecosystem services (water resource output (WY), carbon storage (CS), soil conservation (SC), food supply (FS), and net primary productivity (NPP)) in Hubei Province. The results showed that: (1) ecosystem services in Hubei Province exhibited obvious spatial heterogeneity, with high SC, CS and NPP levels in western Hubei and high FS and WY levels in central and eastern Hubei; (2) the trade-offs and synergies among the different ecosystem services in Hubei Province followed obvious nonlinearity, in which CS, SC and NPP exhibited notable synergies, whereas CS, SC and NPP exhibited trade-offs with FS; and (3) areas with a high level of urbanization experienced severe ecosystem damage. The ecosystems in the southeastern and western parts of Hubei Province exhibited a notable synergistic relationship, whereas those in the other regions exhibited a trade-off relationship.