Agroecosystem services and disservices in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, China: Spatial heterogeneity, trade-off relationships, and driving mechanisms

Abstract

Agricultural ecosystems provide essential material provisions and enhance human well-being, yet their negative impacts cannot be neglected. Understanding the interactions between these agroecosystem services (AESs) and disservices (AEDSs), along with their driving mechanisms can facilitate more sustainable agroecosystem management. In this study, 12 typical indicators of AESs and AEDSs were selected and quantified in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region of China in 2020. The root mean standard deviation was then used to explore their trade-offs. The natural–social drivers of trade-offs were finally analyzed using redundancy analysis and geographically weighted regression. Results showed food production and climate regulation exhibited higher AES values, while water resource consumption and soil pollution showed higher AEDS values, mainly in contiguous cropland areas. Synergy occurred in 28 % of the region among AESs, 31 % among AEDSs, and 36 % among AESs and AEDSs, indicating that the improvement of AESs often spatially coincides with harmful costs of disservices, posing enormous challenges for win-win management and policy-making. Socioeconomic drivers, particularly agricultural mechanization and road density had greater influence on AES–AEDS interactions than natural factors. By explicitly incorporating disservices into trade-off analysis, these findings provide a scientific basis for agroecosystem management, emphasizing the need to prioritize human-activity and technology-driven socioeconomic factors while enhancing ecosystem services and reducing disservices.