Effects of land use changes on values of ecosystem functions on coastal plain of South Hangzhou Bay Bank, China

Land serves as carrier of various terrestrial ecosystems. The variation of ecosystem functions and its economic value composition are mainly caused by land use and land cover changes. Based on dynamic data of land use, this article applies the methods in the ecology and ecologic economics to analyze the economic value change of ecosystem functions on coastal plain of south Hangzhou bay bank, China. The results showed that there is a big difference among the ecological value per unit area in different ecosystems. The land use change led to the reduction of the total value of the ecosystem functions on the coastal plain of south Hangzhou bay bank, from 9.176 x 10(9) yuan RMB in 1987 to 8.989 x 10(9) yuan RMB in 2000, with a decrease of 1.861 x 10(8) yuan RMB, in which the value of ecosystem material product increased from 5.872 x 10(8) yuan RMB in 1987 to 1.011 x 10(9) yuan RMB in 2000, and the value of ecosystem services reduced from 8.588 x 10(9) yuan RMB in 1987 to 7.978 x 10(9) yuan RMB in 2000, and the increase of the value of ecosystem material product was smaller than the decrease of the value of ecosystem services. This variation was caused by the transformation of the ecosystem with higher total economic value and higher economic value of ecosystem services such as mudflat and forestland into other land uses with higher value of material products.