Multi-scalar assessment of ecosystem-services supply and demand for establishing ecological management zoning

Investigating supply-demand matching and scale effects on ecosystem services (ESs) helps define ecological management zoning objectives and informs policy and further research. This study constructs a framework to clarify the “static-dynamic status” of ES supply-demand matching. With China's Taihu Lake Basin (TLB) as our case study, we focused on three ESs in the water–energy–food nexus: water yield (WY), carbon sequestration (CS), and food provision (FP). By analyzing spatiotemporal variations and scale effects on supply–demand matching, we optimized the ecological management zoning. Over 2000–2020, we found decreases in CS supply and WY demand, but growing supply and demand for the other ESs. The supply–demand ratio declined for FP and CS, but increased for WY. Spatial mismatch at 30 m grid scale may disappear at sub-watershed and county scales. Four ecological management bundles were identified: city bundle (18.20% of TLB), ecological control bundle (26.62%), integrated ecological conservation bundle (20.31%), and WY–FP synergy bundle (34.87%). New theories and methods developed in this study for identifying ecological management zones through integrating both static and dynamic supply and demand relationships along with their matching status are broadly applicable, providing a valuable scientific reference for ecosystem management and policy formulation in a range of geographical settings.