Abstract:

The optimization and management of ecosystem services are the fundamental measure to realize the sustainable development of mountain areas. Although there is no obvious vertical band spectrum in Taihang Mountains, the vertical differentiation of ecological characteristics is still obvious. In this paper, several ecosystem feature indexes were selected to determine two vertical differentiation critical lines/zones and three ecosystem types zones in Taihang mountain areas. Based on the analysis to the characteristics of vertical gradient ecosystem services per unit area, sustainable development model and target of ecosystem service regulation and management are determined as follows: the subalpine zone is an ecosystem service overflow management region with a non-provisioning service, middle mountain zone is an ecosystem service balanced development region of four services which play a role on ecosystem service overflow corridor and promote provisioning service area by manual control, hilly area is a mainly provisioning service region for leading ecosystem service process control and adjustment.

Key words: sustainable development in mountain area, vertical differentiation critical line/zone, ecosystem service regulation, management model