Ecosystem services (ES) refer to the various benefits that human beings receive from the ecosystem, including supply services, regulatory services, support services and cultural services. The intensification of human activity has an enormous and accelerated impact on the climate, environment and ecosystems of the Earth, with human activities directly or indirectly affecting the changes in ecosystem services.

Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, a typical arid and ecologically fragile area in China, is more susceptible to human activities due to its vulnerability and sensitivity. The study of ecosystem service value (ESV) and its relationship with human activities in Xinjiang helps link up the national-provincial-county ecosystem services management, promoting the ecological environment and regional sustainable development.

Through the construction of ecosystem service index system and human activity index system, researchers from the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences employed the model of ESV assessment and grey relational degree to reveal the spatiotemporal variation characteristics of ecosystem service value in Xinjiang and its interaction with human activities. 

The researchers found that during 2000-2015, the value of food production services (FPV) showed an upward trend, while the values of climate regulation services (CRV), gas regulation services (GRV), raw material production services (RMPV) and recreation services (RSV) showed a downward trend. The value of hydrological regulation services (HRV) showed a trend of first decreasing and then increasing, while the value of waste disposal services (WDV) showed a trend of first increasing, then decreasing and then increasing again. 

In Xinjiang, human activities have a strong interaction with ecosystem services. Agricultural activities (0.989) and social development activities (0.844) have the greatest impact on changes in ecosystem services, especially agricultural water consumption (0.984) and the total population at year-end (0.965). Hydrological regulation services (0.8179) have the greatest restriction on social and economic development. 

The study, published in Ecological Indicators, provides a new way to grasp the complex relationship between ecological services and human systems, as well as an important reference for the sustainable development of human economic and social systems and ecosystems in arid and semi-arid areas.