Evaluating and Mapping the Wetland Ecosystem Services in North China Plain

Although freshwater ecosystem provides a considerable amount of the Earth's global substantial ecosystem services (ES), and has been experiencing globally continuing declines in its ecosystem services due to the increasing human-induced pressures and threats, freshwater ecosystems have still received less attention than terrestrial or marine ecosystems from the conservation community, in particular of the research gaps in integrated evaluating and modeling the freshwater ecosystem services of riverine and non-riverine wetlands. Therefore, this article contributed to a case research for evaluating and modeling the ecosystem services of freshwater ecosystem in North China Plain (NCP), and shows a framework to integrate riverine and non-riverine wetlands in modeling the freshwater ecosystem services in NCP. In addition, another major innovative contribution for this research highlighted the inherent connected nature and functioning in freshwater ecosystem services by incorporating longitudinal, lateral and vertical connectivity into ES evaluating and modeling.