Land use and landscape pattern changes dominated ecosystem service trade-offs and synergies in a temperate mountain region

Climate change, land use/cover changes (LUCC), and landscape pattern alterations have increasingly complicated ecosystem service (ES) interactions in temperate mountain forests, underscoring the importance of understanding the mechanisms underlying the dominant trade-offs and synergies to inform sustainable natural resource management. In this study, we quantified the degree of trade-offs and synergies among water yield (WY), soil retention (SR), carbon storage (CS), and habitat quality (HQ), and elucidated their dominant drivers in the Changbai Mountain Region (CBMR), Northeast China, from 1990 to 2020. Our results demonstrated that SR (+29.56%) and CS (+9.90%) increased, while WY (−8.77%) and HQ (−20.77%) decreased over the 30 years. ES interactions were dominated by trade-offs between WY and SR and synergies between WY and HQ. These dominant interactions were mainly driven by LUCC, particularly cropland expansion, forest loss, and urbanization, along with landscape pattern alterations associated with increased fragmentation and enhanced connectivity from afforestation, whereas climatic changes played a comparatively smaller role. LUCC not only directly influenced ES interactions but also exerted indirect effects through its alterations of landscape patterns. These complex, multifaceted drivers shape ES relationships and intensify mismatches between ES supply and demand, underscoring the urgent need for integrated, spatially explicit management strategies to balance ES provisioning and ensure long-term ecological sustainability in montane regions.