Temporal Evolution of the Yellow Sea Ecosystem Services (1980–2010)

Marine ecosystem services refer to benefits that people obtain from marine ecosystem. Understanding temporal evolution of these services is a fundamental challenge of natural resource management in marine ecosystems. Yellow Sea is one of the most intensely exploited shallow seas in the Northwest Pacific Ocean. In this study, we analyzed the value of the four classes services (provisioning services, regulating services, cultural services and supporting services, including 14 individual services) of the Yellow Sea on temporal scales. From 1980 to 2010, the total value of the four classes of services was between 297 and 2,232 billion RMB yuan. Only the proportion of cultural services as a percentage of the total value continued to increase for the entire period, from 0.9% in 1980 to 9.4% in 2010. Provisioning services reached their highest point at 18.4% in 2000, and then fell to 10.1% in 2010. Meanwhile, the percentage of regulating services and supporting services declined, falling from 14.4% and 79.4% in 1980 to 10.1% and 70.4% in 2010, respectively. This study represents the first attempt to analyze the temporal evolution of Yellow Sea ecosystem services. It will provide the theoretical basis for further study of the ecological mechanisms of marine ecosystem services.