Mapping and comparing ecosystem service indicators of global climate regulation in Schleswig-Holstein, Northern Germany.

Estimating and mapping Ecosystem Services (ESS) is a primary basis for reasonable ecosystem managing policies. Assessing ESS and optimising the accuracy of ESS assessment is relevant to identify suitable indicators. This study aims to gain a better understanding of global climate regulation service assessments resulting from the application of several indicators that have been derived based on Co-Ordination of INformation on the Environment (CORINE) land cover classes. Therefore, 17 CORINE land cover classes were used to evaluate their effects on the distributions of the annual total Gross Primary Production (GPP), the annual total Net Primary Production (NPP), Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) and Carbon Stocks (CS) in the German federal state Schleswig-Holstein. In addition to the spatial distributions, correlations of distinct quantitative indicators (annual total GPP, annual total NPP, SOC and CS) and a qualitative indicator of Global Climate Regulation (GCR) derived from the ecosystem service matrix method were analysed. We found that qualitative and quantitative indicators of the global climate regulation service had significant correlations based on the comparison analysis of all indicators. The differences in mapping the service with the five indicators resulted from different strategies of the reclassified land covers. In addition, the distinct areas among the land cover classes contributed to the differences in global climate regulation mapping. The interrelations among the annual total GPP, the annual total NPP and statistical data on total harvest of different agricultural products also correlated significantly. Based on the results, GPP, NPP, SOC, CS and GCR are available indicators of global climate regulation service in Schleswig-Holstein. Nevertheless, we especially recommend CS as the indicator owning to its high accuracy in assessments. The indicators and methodology in our study can also be applied to other researches targeted with evaluating global climate regulation service.