Cultivated Ecosystem Services in the Yangtze River Economic Belt: Distinguishing Characteristics and Underlying Drivers Over the Past 20 Years

ABSTRACT Protecting cultivated land in China is crucial for both food security and ecological sustainability. However, research on cultivated land protection from the perspective of cultivated ecosystem services (CESs) remains limited, particularly regarding the assessment of CESs, the complex trade‐offs between them, and the identification of their driving forces to inform policy‐making. This study develops a multi‐dimensional evaluation framework to assess eight CESs, analyze their dynamics and trade‐offs, identify CES bundles, and examine their influencing factors in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), China. Results indicate that grain production services exhibited a steady increase over the past two decades, with a slight decline after 2015. Water conservation and related services fluctuated, initially declining, peaking in 2015, and then decreasing again. In contrast, landscape aesthetics consistently declined, while habitat maintenance improved from 2000 to 2010 but weakened thereafter. Five pairs of CESs maintained stable trade‐offs, whereas some synergies diminished over time. Seven distinct CES bundles were identified, reflecting site‐specific conditions that support multifunctional land management. Key negative factors affecting most CESs included temperature, precipitation, elevation, urbanization rate, and rural residents' disposable income, whereas population density, primary industry share, and road network density positively influenced several CESs. This study enriches the analytical framework of cultivated land protection through an ecosystem service lens and offers insights for policies such as the trinity protection system for cultivated land, natural resource asset assessment, and land degradation prevention.