Farmland can provide various ecosystem services such as food production, groundwater recharge, and carbon storage. However, the overall value of farmland ecosystem services and differences in their spatial distribution are rarely studied, particularly with regard to farmland with crop rotations. In this study, we developed an assessing framework for appraising the overall value of ecosystem services of farmland with crop rotations on the basis of Costanza’s global ecosystem service valuation method. Changhua County in central Taiwan is used as a case study to estimate the impact of land use change on its farmland ecosystem services.
We also applied the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model to analyze the spatial distribution of individual ecosystem services. Results from the global ecosystem service value method indicates that land use change in the study area caused a steady decline in overall farmland ecosystem service value between 1981 and 2021. However, if the practice of farmland crop rotation is included, the proposed method for evaluating ecosystem services of farmland indicate an increase in total ecosystem service value (ESV).
