Study on spatio-temporal evolution of ecosystem services, spatio-temporal pattern of tradeoff/synergy relationship and its driving factors in Shendong mining area

Objectives: The game between socio-economic development and ecological development has always been the core issue in coal areas, but the internal mechanism of tradeoff and cooperative dynamic change of ecosystem services in mining areas under long-term mineral resources development is still lacking in in-depth research.Methods: Therefore, taking Shendong mining area as an example, this study used InVEST model to evaluate the changes of four major ecosystem service functions in Shendong mining area from 1990 to 2020, namely, water yield (WY), net primary productivity (NPP), soil conservation (SC) and habitat quality (HQ). Meanwhile, correlation analysis was used to explore the trade-off and synergistic relationship among these services. On this basis, the coupling effect between the four ecosystem services is further discussed by using the constraint line method. Finally, the key drivers of ecosystem service trade-offs/synergies in the region are explored by using geodetectors and the explanations of each influence factor for RMS errors are obtained.Results: The results show that 1) from 1990 to 2020, the water yield and soil retention in the mining area decrease first and then increase, and the net primary productivity and habitat quality increase slowly, mainly in the southeast of the mining area. 2) In terms of constraint relationship, all the four ecosystem services showed hump-like constraint relationship, that is, there was obvious constraint threshold effect. 3) In the Shendong mining area, the synergistic relationship is the dominant relationship between ecosystem services, and the tradeoff effect mainly occurs between water yield and habitat quality. 4) In terms of the driving mechanism of tradeoff/synergy, land use type, temperature, and rainfall are the main factors that cause the spatial differentiation of tradeoff synergy intensity among ecosystem services in Shendong mining area.Conclusions: The results of this study provide a scientific basis for the improvement of ecological environment and sustainable utilization of mineral resources under long-term exploitation.