Eco-environmental effects and driving factors of spatiotemporal change in production-living-ecological space in the source region of the Yellow River, China

As one of China’s most important ecological conservation regions, the source region of the Yellow River (SRYR) has a fragile ecological environment. Investigating land use transformations and their ecological consequences in this region is of great significance for optimizing territorial spatial structure and promoting regional sustainable development. Based on the dominant functions of production-living-ecological space (PLES), we employed the land use transfer matrix and the standard deviational ellipse method to elucidate the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of PLES in the SRYR from 2000 to 2020. Furthermore, the mechanism underlying the differentiation of eco-environmental effects in this region was explored using the optimal parameter-based geographical detector (OPGD) model. Results indicated that ecological space predominated within the PLES of the SRYR, accounting for approximately 98.74% of the total area. Living space was sparsely distributed in township areas with a proportion below 1.00%. Production space was mainly distributed in Guinan County and Gonghe County, accounting for about 1.16% of the area. In terms of the temporal scale, during 2000–2020, the overall eco-environmental quality of the SRYR exhibited an improving trend, primarily driven by the conversion of other ecological spaces into grassland ecological space. Interaction detection results revealed that the interaction between normalized difference vegetation index and gross domestic product was the strongest. In addition, the interaction between precipitation and temperature showed a significant bilinear enhancement effect. This finding suggests that the variations in eco-environmental quality in the SRYR during 2000–2020 have been jointly influenced by natural, climatic, and human factors. This study helps to provide a scientific basis for the rational layout of PLES and guiding ecological restoration efforts in the SRYR.