The Influences of Land Use and Economic Policy on Main Ecosystem Services in Rural East China

The growing need for food provision and materials challenges the maintenance of ecosystem services. Understanding the composition of ecosystem services and the factors that affect the services are critical to improving rural development. An assessment of ecosystem services in the densely populated rural areas of East China has been conducted. The results show the average value of rural ecosystem services was 34.99 thousand RMB/ha. The average value of provision services was 30.01 thousand RMB/ha, which was the main part of ecosystem services. The relationships between provision services and ecosystem services were complex. Provision (nutrition) services had no significant correlation with regulation services and provision (material) services. Provision services were mainly influenced by forest cover, proportion of arable land, and rural population (adjusted R2 = 0.36). Social factors and land use factors also had a significant impact on nutrition provision services and material provision services. Land and economic policies could regulate the rural ecosystem service value by changing land use types, population mobility, and rural income. Our findings may shed light on the synergetic development of ecosystem services, provision services, and village development in densely populated rural areas worldwide.