Construction of Ecological Security Patterns in the Yellow River Basin of Inner Mongolia Based on Ecosystem Services

Regional ecological security patterns provide a spatial basis for coordinating ecosystem conservation, restoration, and sustainable land management in ecologically fragile basins. However, the joint consideration of ecosystem multifunctionality, landscape connectivity, and existing protected areas remains limited in many ecological security pattern studies. Taking the Inner Mongolia section of the Yellow River Basin (IMYRB) as the study area, this study assessed nine provisioning, regulating, and cultural ecosystem services using the 2020 land-use map and other spatial datasets. Ecological sources were identified through multi-service hotspot analysis, while ecological corridors and pinch points were delineated using the minimum cumulative resistance model and circuit theory; the identified sources were further compared spatially with existing nature reserves. The analysis identified 33 ecological sources covering 34,264.28 km2 (23.47% of the basin) and 80 ecological corridors. A pronounced east–west contrast was evident: ecological sources in the east were generally larger and more aggregated, whereas those in the west were smaller and more fragmented. Key pinch points were concentrated in narrow linkage zones between adjacent ecological sources in the eastern IMYRB, indicating critical connectivity bottlenecks. Only 9.7% of the ecological source area overlapped with existing nature reserves, revealing a substantial conservation gap. These findings highlight the need to prioritize the protection of uncovered ecological sources and maintain critical connectivity zones, providing a spatial basis for protected-area optimization and ecological restoration planning in the IMYRB.