Abstract
Understanding the scale-dependent mechanisms linking landscape patterns to ecosystem services is crucial for sustainable land management, especially in fragmented hilly regions. This study, conducted in the hilly areas of southern China, aimed to quantitatively unravel these mechanisms at an optimal spatial scale. We first identified 14,400 km2 as the scale where landscape metrics stabilized. Using Spatial Error Models (SEM) to control for spatial autocorrelation, we analysed the distinct effects of landscape configuration on key ecosystem services. At the class level, forest aggregation was a consistent positive driver for multiple services; for example, it maintained a stable, significant positive relationship with carbon sequestration across all study years (P < 0.01). Conversely, farmland edge (total edge) significantly promoted nutrient export (P < 0.001), highlighting a functional contrast with natural landscapes. At the landscape level, total edge exhibited a consistent positive effect on several ecosystem services (P < 0.001), whereas increased landscape evenness was a primary inhibitory factor, showing a significant negative correlation with habitat quality (P < 0.001) and a strengthening negative effect on nutrient retention over time (P < 0.01). These findings provide a scale-specific, quantitative foundation for spatial planning, underscoring the necessity of maintaining forest connectivity and strategically managing agricultural-natural land interfaces to enhance ecosystem services bundles in heterogeneous landscapes.
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Data availability
The land use data is based on the China Land Cover Dataset (CLCD) dataset which is sourced from the National Cryosphere Desert Data Center (http://www.ncdc.ac.cn). DEM data and Soil properties data are sourced from The Earth Science Data Systems (ESDS) Program ( [https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov]). The Evaporation data is China’s 1 km Resolution Monthly Potential Evapotranspiration Dataset from the National Tibetan Plateau/Third Pole Environment Data Center ( (https:/doi.org/https://doi.org/10.11866/db.loess.2021.001) . Precipitation data was sourced from Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3114194).The NPP data were sourced from two distinct datasets, we employed the monthly NPP 1 km raster dataset of Chinese terrestrial ecosystems north of 18°N latitude (https://doi.org/10.3974/geodb.2019.03.02.V1) and MODIS MOD17A3HGF products (https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD17A3HGF.006). A detailed description of these datasets is provided in the Research Data section of the manuscript.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by National Key Research Program of China (2022YFF1303001), National Natural Science Foundation of China (42001210, 31972951, 31670645, 42171100, 41801182, 41807502) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA23020502).
Funding
This work was supported by National Key Research Program of China (2022YFF1303001), National Natural Science Foundation of China (42001210, 31972951, 31670645, 42171100, 41801182, 41807502) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA23020502).
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P.Z. and Y.Q. wrote the main manuscript text and prepared figures, A.M. and Y.S. provided data support, S.Z. provided some suggestions on methodology, Z.W. and Y.R. provided resources and financial support. All authors reviewed the manuscript.
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Zhu, P., Qiu, Y., Molla, A. et al. Quantitative analysis of landscape patterns and ecosystem services at multiple scales in hilly areas of Southern China. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-34384-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-34384-7
