[Spatiotemporal Relationship Between Carbon Emissions and Ecosystem Service Value in Hutuo River Basin]

With the global pursuit of both sustainable development and environmental protection, especially in the context of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality strategies, the importance of ecosystem service in connecting nature and human well-being has become increasingly prominent. Land use change exerts a profound influence on variations of carbon emissions and ecosystem service values (ESV). In-depth exploration of intricate spatio-temporal relationships between land use change, carbon emission and ESV serves as a crucial foundation for promoting green sustainable development strategies. Consequently, taking Hutuo River Basin as the study area, based on five periods of land use and socio-economic data from 2000 to 2020, this research employed the spatial autocorrelation method to investigate the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics and spatial correlation patterns between carbon emissions and ESV in Hutuo River Basin. The results revealed that: ① From 2000 to 2020, Hutuo River Basin was dominated by farmland and grassland, and the conversion area of farmland was as high as 1 241 km², which was the main driving force for land use change in Hutuo River Basin. ② Over the past two decades, Hutuo River Basin exhibited a significant increase in carbon emissions, with the total emissions rising from 14.029 million tons in 2000 to 57.633 million tons in 2020. In terms of carbon source/sink structures, construction land was the dominant carbon source. The areas with high-intensity carbon emissions were concentrated in the urban areas of Yangquan and Shijiazhuang cities. ③ The proportion of ESV from forest and grassland in Hutuo River Basin was relatively high. The ESV has shown downward trend over the past 20 years, decreasing from 50.25 billion yuan in 2000 to 48.004 billion yuan in 2020. ④ In Hutuo River Basin, there was a significant negative correlation between carbon emission intensity caused by land use and ESV intensity from 2000 to 2020. Specifically, an increase in carbon emission intensity due to land use activities corresponded to a decrease in ESV intensity. These research results can guide decision-making for green transformation and upgrading of industries, environmental protection policies formulation, and sustainable development in Hutuo River Basin.