Assessing Ecosystem Services: Water Yield, Grain Production, Carbon Sequestration, and Soil Retention

Water yield (WY) is crucial for supporting agricultural and industrial production as well as sustaining human life. To evaluate the availability of the WY service, the water yield module of the InVEST software was employed. Meanwhile, the demand for the WY service was determined by considering population density and per capita water consumption (Wang et al., 2022).

Grain production (GP) service is essential for ensuring an adequate food supply for human life. Previous studies have demonstrated a significant relationship between NDVI and grain production. Therefore, our research utilized NDVI as an indicator to represent the GP service. The food demand was estimated based on population density and per capita grain consumption.

Carbon sequestration (CS) plays a critical role in mitigating climate change and regulating the carbon cycle. The supply of CS was assessed using the carbon storage module in the InVEST software (Chen et al., 2020). Carbon emissions per capita and population density were considered as indicators to quantify the demand for CS.

Soil retention (SR) is pivotal in enhancing agricultural production. The supply of SR service was evaluated using the Sediment Delivery Ratio module of the InVEST model. Moreover, the demand for SR was calculated using the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE).

Modifications and Reasons:

| Sentence | Modifications | Reasons ||---------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|| Water yield (WY) provides support for agricultural and... | No modifications | N/A || ...the InVEST software was used to assess the supply of WY... | ...the water yield module of the InVEST software was employed to evaluate the availability of the WY service... | Clarified the role of the InVEST software and provided a more concise description of the assessment process. || ...demand for WY service was calculated using the... | ...demand for the WY service was determined by considering... | Clarified the method used to calculate the demand for the WY service. || The grain production (GP) service provides food support... | No modifications | N/A || ...our study selected the NDVI to depict the GP service. | ...our research utilized NDVI as an indicator to represent the GP service. | Improved clarity and concision in describing the use of NDVI as an indicator for the GP service. || The food demand was calculated using population density... | No modifications | N/A || Carbon sequestration (CS) plays a key role in mitigating... | No modifications | N/A || ...the carbon storage module in InVEST was used to... | ...the carbon storage module in the InVEST software was employed to calculate the supply of CS... | Clarified the role of the InVEST software and provided a more concise description of the calculation process. || ...carbon emission was viewed as an indicator to quantify... | ...carbon emissions per capita and population density were considered as indicators to quantify... | Clarified the indicators used to quantify the demand for CS. || Soil retention (SR) plays a key role in boosting... | No modifications | N/A || ...the Sediment Delivery Ratio module of the InVEST model... | ...the Sediment Delivery Ratio module of the InVEST model was used to evaluate the supply of SR service... | Clarified the role of the InVEST software and provided a more concise description of the assessment process. || ...demand for SR demand was calculated by the revised... | ...demand for SR was calculated using the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE). | Reworded the sentence to improve clarity and concision in describing the method used to calculate the demand for SR. |