Fig. 2.

The importance of ecosystems service source areas in China, showing the spatial mismatch of ecosystems services and nature reserve locations. A–E refer to results for water retention, soil retention, sandstorm prevention, carbon sequestration, and integrated ecosystem services, respectively. F shows the spatial distribution of China's national and local nature reserves. Sandstorm prevention services originate mainly in north China, whereas the other services originate mainly in east China. Nature reserve area is concentrated in the Qinghai–Tibetan region. Scale 0–100 shows the importance level for each service. Ecosystem service data are from ref. 17.