Ecological Indicators 60 (2016) 1008–1016 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ecological Indicators jo ur nal ho me page: www.elsevier.com/locate/ ecolind Indicators for spatial–temporal comparisons of ecosystem service status between regions: A case study of the Taihu River Basin, China Jinghui Li a,b , Hongwei Jiang a , Yang Bai c,∗ , Juha M. Alatalo d , Xin Li a , Huawei Jiang a , Gang Liu e , Jun Xu a a Suzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Suzhou 215155, China b Suzhou Administrative Institution, Suzhou 215155, China c Institute of Applied Ecology, Shanghai Academy of Environmental Sciences, Shanghai 200233, China d Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar e Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 29 May 2015 Received in revised form 1 September 2015 Accepted 1 September 2015 Keywords: Ecosystem services Indicator Supply rate Supply–demand ratio Matrix a b s t r a c t With the development of ecological science, the demand to integrate ecosystem services into ecological management is increasing. Stakeholders are interested in comparing stocks and ability to supply ecosys- tem services in different regions. However, different areas may have different primary ecosystem services and knowledge of the aggregated value of ecosystem services may be lacking, making comparisons dif- ficult. Relevant indicators that can integrate a group of ecosystem services for comparison are therefore needed. This paper formulated two indicators, ecosystem service supply rate and supply–demand ratio, and applied them in a case study to compare and map the spatial–temporal status of ecosystem services and the ability to supply these in different regions. Using nine regions in the Taihu River Basin in China as an example, data obtained from high-resolution spatial land use, land cover maps and stakeholder interviews were used to identify the spatial–temporal potential supply and flow of ecosystem services and human demand patterns. The results showed that ecosystem service supply rate had declined from 2000 to 2010, indicating that the overall proportion of potential ecosystem services turned into flow in the Taihu River Basin declined. Determination of supply–demand ratio revealed that the status of ecosys- tem service provision in the basin is in deficit, with the deficit increasing between 2000 and 2010. These findings indicate that ecosystem service supply rate and supply–demand ratio are useful indicators of ecosystem service status and can permit comparisons between regions on both a spatial and temporal scale. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction With the development of ecological science, the demand to inte- grate ecosystem services into ecological management is increasing (Crossman et al., 2013; Burkhard et al., 2013; Alkemade et al., 2014). Stakeholders, especially policymakers, have significantly high expectations for more targeted science on ecosystem ser- vices (Honey-Rosés and Pendleton, 2013). These stakeholders hope that studying ecosystem services can provide them with more reliable information and technology to evaluate and predict the ecological consequences of their decisions, and to support and opti- mise decision making. Stakeholders attending regional meetings ∗ Corresponding author at: Qinzhou Road 508, Xuhui District, Shanghai 200233, China. Tel.: +86 21 64085119 2428. E-mail address: youngbcs@gmail.com (Y. Bai). or involved in regional planning are also interested in comparing stocks and ability to supply ecosystem services in different regions. For this, they need simple indicators showing their own place or level among regions, or worldwide. However, as different areas may have different primary ecosystem services, as well as a lack of knowledge on the aggregated value of ecosystem services, they are difficult to compare. Thus relevant indicators that integrate a group of ecosystem services for comparisons between regions are needed. Moreover, due to the uncertainty of theory and the limitations of research methods (Hou et al., 2013), there are still difficulties in accurately evaluating ecosystem services and extracting ecosystem services information important to decision makers. Ecosystems are capable of providing a series of potential ecosys- tem services based on their integrity (van Oudenhoven et al., 2012). The self-organising ability of ecological integrity relies on ecosys- tem structure and processes (Müller, 2005; Burkhard and Müller, 2008). Land use and land cover (LULC) changes induced by human http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2015.09.002 1470-160X/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.