Spatiotemporal dynamics of land-sea-scape carbon storage and natural-human coupled driving processes in Bohai Bay between 1979 and 2020

Dramatic land use/land cover (LULC) change in the coastal zone driven by human and natural factors increases the urgency of studying the land-sea-scape pattern's impacts on land and sea. Based on the LULC data of the Bohai Bay in 1979, 1989, 1999, 2008, and 2020, this study analyzed the characteristics of the spatial and temporal evolution of carbon storage in combination with the InVEST model, and revealed the impacts of change trajectories in LULC on carbon storage over five periods. The results of the study showed that the carbon storage in the Bohai Bay has decreased by 15.64% in the last 40 years, with a cumulative carbon loss of 0.91 x 107 Mg. A total of 213 driving process trajectories were identified through the land use trajectories, with 23 major driving processes (94.25% of all processes). The number of Mono + , Mono-, Multiple + , and Multiple- were 4, 5, 95, and 100, respectively. Among them, Mono- has the largest area, driving the reduction of carbon storage in the study area by 40.63 x 105 Mg from 1979 to 2020. The number of Natural + , Natural-, Human + , Human-, Couple + , and Couple- were 4, 5, 64, 61, 39, and 31, respectively. Of these, Human- had the largest area, driving a 59.67 x 105 Mg reduction in carbon storage in the study area during 1979-2020. This study will provide coastal zone management and decision-making with a reliable reference, and facilitate the exploration of the optimal way of land use structure and enhance ecosystem services.