Integrative analysis of biodiversity, ecosystem services, and ecological vulnerability can facilitate improved spatial representation of nature reserves

Understanding how to identify priority conservation areas for biodiversity and ecosystem services (ESs) is crucial for nature reserve (NR) optimization and regional planning. This study reports a regional assessment in Qinghai Province of China, quantifying the biodiversity and the provision of four ESs (carbon sequestration-net primary productivity (NPP), water yield, soil retention, and sandstorm prevention). The representativeness-vulnerability framework was employed to identify priority conservation areas for biodiversity and ESs, and the conservation gaps of existing NRs. The results show that the biodiversity, ES supply, and vulnerability of biodiversity and ESs to human activities present spatial heterogeneity. Except for sandstorm prevention, the high-value areas of ESs are generally in eastern or southern Qinghai. NPP, water yield, soil retention, and biodiversity are positively correlated (p < 0.01). The ten NRs in Qinghai only protected 5.59 %, 5.01 %, 4.29 %, 0.65 %, and 4.49 % of the priority conservation area for biodiversity, NPP, water yield, sandstorm prevention, and soil retention, respectively. Overall, a total of 170,932 km2 of theoretically comprehensive priority conservation areas for both biodiversity and ESs have been identified, which were mostly distributed in eastern, southern, and southeastern Qinghai. The existing NRs has notable conservation gaps (161,956 km2 accounting for 94.75 % of the targeted conservation areas) for both biodiversity and ESs. This study illuminates a strategy for strengthening both biodiversity and ESs through NR optimization, which is also applicable to other regions.