Scale Effects on the Calculation of Ecosystem Service Values: A Comparison among Results from Different LULC Datasets

Land use/land cover (LULC) has an important impact on the ecological environment and is crucial for calculating ecosystem service values (ESVs). However, whether and to what extent the ESVs vary when calculated by LULC product data at different spatial scales remain unclear. Data from two LULC products were used in this study, and two datasets with different spatial scales were obtained by resampling. Then, the ESVs were calculated by the equivalent factor method. Finally, the impacts of LULC on ESVs at different scales were studied, revealing the following: (1) The ESVs calculated by LULC products and by the same products at different scales are different. (2) The difference in the ESVs calculated by the two LULC datasets is approximately 28%, and the difference tends to decrease with increasing scale. (3) With an increase in the LULC scale, the overall change trend of ESVs also increases, and the increasing trend gradually moderates. In addition, the ESVs and LULC scale conform to a logarithmic relationship, and the coefficient of determination (R2) is greater than 0.7. These results have important reference value for obtaining reliable ESVs.