ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. For. Glob. Change
Sec. Forest Hydrology
Spatiotemporal relationships and underlying drivers of ecosystem services supply-demand matches after vegetation restoration in Shaanxi section of the Yellow River Basin
Provisionally accepted
- North China University of Water Conservancy and Electric Power, Zhengzhou, China
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Accurately identifying the spatiotemporal characteristics and spatial matching of ecosystem services (ESs) supply and demand, and determining the factors influencing the ESs supply-demand relationship, is of great significance for guiding the formulation of regional ecological protection policies and sustainable management. Unfortunately, the comprehensive change characteristics of the ESs supply and demand and their driving mechanisms after large-scale vegetation restoration in the Shaanxi section of the Yellow River Basin (SYRB) remain unclear. This study, taking the SYRB as the study area, employed specialized models to measured the water yield, soil conservation, and carbon fixation on both the supply and demand sides following vegetation restoration in 2000 and 2023. Subsequently, the spatiotemporal heterogeneity characteristics of the ESs supply-demand matching were explored by constructing the supply-demand ratio index. Finally, using the optimal parameter Geodetector, the influencing factors of the ESs supply-demand matching relationship in the SYRB were further identified. The results showed that the water yield was generally in a deficit state of insufficient supply during the study period, but the deficit state has improved. In 2023, the counties with insufficient water yield supply were mainly located in the northern part of the SYRB and the Guanzhong Plain. Soil conservation achieved a fundamental reversal from a "general deficit" to an "overall surplus". In 2023, the counties with insufficient soil conservation supply were mainly located in the northern part of the SYRB. Conversely, the supply-demand relationship of carbon fixation in the vast majority of counties has deteriorated. In 2023, the counties with insufficient carbon fixation supply were mainly located in the northern part of the SYRB and the Guanzhong Plain. Economic density, vegetation coverage and population density were identified as the key factors dominating the water yield supply-demand matching relationship. Precipitation, slope and population density were the main controlling factors for the soil conservation supply-demand matching relationship. Economic density, forest and grassland percentage, and population density were the core factors influencing the carbon fixation supply-demand matching relationship. This study clarified the supply-demand relationship and driving mechanism for key ESs in the SYRB, thus providing a theoretical basis for the comprehensive management of regional ecosystems.
Keywords: Ecosystem service demand, ecosystem service supply, Matching relationship, Social-ecological drivers, Yellow River Basin
Received: 09 Sep 2025; Accepted: 08 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Cao and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lianhai Cao
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