Effect of Land Use and Land Cover Change on Ecosystem Service Value of Northeast Sandy Land in China

The goal of this study is to analyze the land use and land cover change (LUCC) in the Northeast Sandy Land from 1990 to 2023 and reveal the characteristics of the changes in the value of ecosystem services in the area, aiming to provide scientific references for the ecological sustainable development of the Northeast Sandy Land. Using Landsat series remote sensing images from 1990 to 2023, we endeavored to obtain the information mapping of LUCC in the study area in four periods (1990, 2000, 2010, and 2023), applied GIS spatial analysis and numerical statistical analysis methods to study the LUCC in the area, and calculated the resulting changes in ecosystem service value (ESV) based on the table of ESV coefficients. The results show that: (1) in the past 33 years, LUCC in the Northeast Sandy Land has changed significantly, with an increase in the area of farmland, sandy land, and other lands, and a decrease in the area of forest, grassland, and water; (2) the value of ecosystem services has increased from CNY 1,624,557.77 billion in 1990 to CNY 173,999.99 billion in 2023, the average annual growth rate is 0.24%/a; (3) in the single ESV, the ESV of biodiversity increase is the greatest, with an increase of 0.72%/a; (4) LUCC is obvious in the Northeast Sandy Land, and LUCC is the main reason affecting the change in regional ESV.