2.2. Data
2.2.1. Ecosystem services
Five ecosystem services were selected for this study based on
their importance in the grassland biome, the availability of data,
and the extent to which they rely on natural vegetation cover. The
services include water supply and regulation, soil retention and
accumulation, and carbon storage. Data used for mapping water
supply and flow regulation, soil retention and accumulation are
described in Egoh et al. (2008). Carbon storage data used in this
study were extracted from a global soil dataset (GSDT, 2002).
Although driven by similar ecosystem processes, these services
differ in terms of interactions among processes, importance of
processes and therefore areas of high ecosystem service provision.
For example, high water supply areas are concentrated in the
Eastern parts of the grassland biome, whereas areas important for
water regulation tend to occur in the central part. This has important
implications for spatial planning. Previous studies showed that
spatial correlation amongst these five serviceswas low to moderate
(Egoh et al., 2008). A brief description of how the services were
mapped is given below.