Spatial-temporal evolution and driving factors of ecosystem services trade-offs and synergies in karst areas from a geospatial perspective

Nowadays, studies of ecosystem services (ESs) trade-offs and synergies in karst areas are limited to a single region. In particular, the quantification of the nature and intensity of the relationships between ESs in continuous karst distribution areas (CKDAs) and non-karst areas (NKAs), and a full understanding of the drivers behind this change remains a challenge. In this study, the province of Guizhou in China was used as study area and a framework was developed to analyze the spatial variation of trade-offs and synergies between ESs. The framework utilized Spearman, geographical detector, and multi-scale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) to establish connections between four key ESs: habitat quality (HQ), water yield (WY), soil conservation (SC), and net primary productivity (NPP). Through the examination of these relationships, this article has revealed the influence of the driving forces on this ecological process. The study indicated that: (1) During this period, ESs in study area increased steadily, with the average value of HQ always above 0.6, and WY, SC, and NPP increased by 2.32%, 6.07%, and 15.18%, respectively. (2) WY had a trade-off relationship with other ESs, and SC, HQ, and NPP were synergistic with each other. (3) In the CKDA, topography and precipitation dominated the relationship between SC and other ESs. In contrast, in the NKA, ecological processes involving HQ were more prominent in human/natural interactions. Therefore, proposing ecological measures at different spatial scales to promote synergistic development between ESs is of great importance for ecological governance and sustainability of karst areas.