Ecological carrying capacity assessment incorporating ecosystem service flows

Ecological carrying capacity focuses on the limits of human development, serving as a policy instrument for guiding regional sustainable development. Regional space exhibits openness and dynamics. Nonetheless, ecological carrying capacity assessments seldom account for the potential influence of dynamic elements. The endeavor to integrate ecosystem service flows into ecological carrying capacity assessment represents an innovative approach to address this issue. This paper reviews multiple methods of assessing ecological carrying capacity and highlights the deficiencies in representing dynamic elements. Subsequently, the research progress in ecosystem service flows is examined, encompassing connotations, features, and models. Based on common theories, intermediary linkages, and the impact of incorporating spatiotemporal dynamics, the relationship between them is analyzed. The advantages of ecosystem service flows are also elucidated, which provide explicit spatial information and integrate biophysical processes when representing dynamic elements. The framework for ecological carrying capacity assessment incorporating ecosystem service flows comprises five steps: key theory selection, objectives and scope establishment, identification of supply and demand matching and assessment of flow utility, ecosystem service flow analysis, and ecological carrying capacity assessment. In the future, the research will focus on conducting quantitative pilot projects in typical regions, removing barriers to ecosystem service flows, and developing a dynamic ecological carrying capacity assessment model that considers multiple factors.