How Climate Change and Human Activities Affect the Habitat Quality of the Yellow River Delta?

ABSTRACT Habitat quality (HQ) is a crucial indicator for assessing ecosystem services. Investigating HQ in the Yellow River Delta (YRD) and elucidating its relationships with climate change and human activities is crucial for supporting regional eco‐economic sustainability. Based on land use data from 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020, the impacts and correlations of climate change and human activities on the ecological environment were analyzed using the integrated valuation of ecosystem services and tradeoffs (InVEST), the bivariate spatial autocorrelation, the human activity intensity, and the geographical detector models. From 1980 to 2020, the HQ in the YRD showed a fluctuating trend with alternating declines and increases. Overall, medium‐grade habitat consistently dominated the landscape, while the proportion of high‐grade habitat increased markedly by 2020. Notably, the net annual habitat transitions shifted toward lower‐grade habitats during 1980–1990, whereas the period from 2010 to 2020 witnessed a reversal, with net transitions increasingly directed toward higher‐grade habitats. Over the 40‐year period, HQ in the YRD exhibited significant correlations with climate change and human activities. Temperature was negatively correlated with HQ, while precipitation showed a positive correlation during the first three decades but shifted to a negative correlation in the last decade. Human activities exerted the strongest explanatory power on the spatial heterogeneity of HQ, with significant interactive effects between human activities and climatic factors. During the first three decades of the study period, this interaction demonstrated a nonlinearly enhanced influence, while in the last decade, a synergistic enhancement by both factors became more pronounced. This study elucidated the impacts of climate change and human activities on HQ in the Yellow River Delta and provided recommendations for ecological conservation, restoration, and promoting a positive interaction between ecological and economic development in the region.