Spatial and temporal evolution of landscape ecological security and its influencing factors in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from the perspective of production-living-ecological space in the past 40 years

The Yangtze River Economic Belt is the leading demonstration belt for ecological civilization construction, and its spatial and temporal pattern of production-living-ecological space profoundly impacts landscape ecology security and people’s blessedness. Based on the remote sensing monitoring data of land use in 1980, 1990, 2010, and 2020, and considering the corresponding relationship between production-living-ecological space and land use types, this study analyzed the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics of landscape ecology security in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 1980 to 2020 by using a landscape ecology security assessment model, spatial autocorrelation analysis, and other methods. And the geographic detectors was usted to explore the impact mechanisms of changes in natural conditions, social economy, and land use. The results showed that: 1) from 1980 to 2020, the land space of the Yangtze River Economic Belt was mainly ecological space, followed by production space and living space. The mutual conversion between production space and ecological space, and production space and living space, were dominant. 2) The overall landscape ecology security level of the production-living-ecological space in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 1980 to 2020 showed an increasing trend. Among them, the unsafe zones of production space first decreased and then increased slightly; the unsafe zones of living space decreased year by year, whereas the moderately safe zones and safer zones expanded, and the safer zones of ecological space showed a fluctuating upward trend. 3) The spatial differentiation of landscape ecology security in the Yangtze River Economic Belt was clear. Among them, the safe zones of production space and living space were mainly distributed in the three major urban clusters in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, whereas the safe zones of ecological space were concentrated in the mountainous areas in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, southern Jiangxi and southern Zhejiang. 4) The spatial pattern of landscape ecology security of the production-living-ecological space in the Yangtze River Economic Belt was relatively stable, but the internal regional differences were evident. The high-high aggregation areas were mainly distributed in western Sichuan, western Yunnan, parts of Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, and southern Zhejiang, whereas the low-low aggregation areas were mainly distributed in the three major urban agglomerations in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. 5) Land use significantly impacted the evolution of landscape ecology security patterns, followed by the social economy and natural conditions. Therefore, we should pay attention to optimizing the layout of the production-living-ecological space to improve the coordinated play of landscape ecology functions and promote the ecological civilization construction and sustainable development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.