Ecosystem service value analysis of CO2 management based on land use change of Zoige alpine peat wetland, Tibetan Plateau

Peat wetlands have widely been considered the carbon storage warehouse of the world and contribute to mitigating the global greenhouse effect. Nevertheless, this stored carbon and other greenhouse gasses are slowly being released into the atmosphere as the world's average temperature rises, leading to an even faster rise in temperature. CO2 management in the Zoige Wetland of the Tibetan Plateau, the largest alpine peat wetland in the world, was estimated as a focal ecosystem service. Knowing landscape changes as the combined expression of social, economic, and natural factors, we firstly analyzed the effects of landscape change on CO2 emissions during 1980-2005 with a comprehensive consideration of the area and the corresponding emission rate of both water-covered areas and non-water-covered areas. A comparison with baseline emission data showed enhanced eco-environment protection of the Zoige Wetland helped reduce emissions of CO2 during 1990-2000 and 2005. Then we developed a principal component analysis method to analyze how CO2 emissions were influenced by human-social factors and natural factors, showing human-social factors cause most of the natural CO2 emissions in the Zoige Wetland. Finally we accounted the ecosystem service valuation of CO2 management by using a mandatory CO2 trade price in China. It indicated that CO2 reductions in 2005 were valued at 588.90 x 10(4) CNY (95.8 x 10(4) USD), and it needed about 20 years for the Zoige Wetland ecosystem to recover after disturbance. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.