ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Response of Mountain Ecosystem
Services to Different Grid Scales
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1
College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Guizhou Institute of Technology, Guiyang 550025 PR China
2
School of Geography and Resources, Guizhou Education University, Guiyang 550018, China
Submission date: 2024-09-13
Final revision date: 2024-10-21
Acceptance date: 2024-11-10
Online publication date: 2025-01-27
Corresponding author
Huiqing Han
College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Guizhou Institute of Technology, Guiyang 550025 PR China
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ABSTRACT
The diverse ecosystems in the mountainous regions of southwestern China provide various essential
ecosystem services, which are critical for the ecological protection and sustainable development
of the upper reaches of the Yangtze and Pearl Rivers. Although the scale dependency of ecosystem
services has been demonstrated, the effects of different grid scales on the complex mountain ecosystem
services remain unclear. This study selects Wangcao Town in Zunyi City, Guizhou Province of China,
as a typical representative of mountainous areas. Utilizing GIS technology and the InVEST model,
the response of five key ecosystem services to four grid scales (30 m, 100 m, 300 m, and 600 m) is
analyzed. The results reveal that nutrient purification is significantly more sensitive to changes in grid
scale compared to water yield, soil retention, carbon storage, and crop production. While increasing
the grid scale alters the correlation coefficients between ecosystem services, it does not fundamentally
change the trade-offs and synergies among them. Differences in ecosystem service responses and their
relationships are observed across different slope gradients under varying grid scales. Most ecosystem
services and their relationships exhibit greater sensitivity to grid scale in the 0-5º slope range compared
to other slope gradients. The dominant landscape type plays a critical role in the scale dependency of
ecosystem services in complex mountainous terrain as the grid scale changes.