Abstract: Shanxi Province acts as a critical ecological barrier in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) and is an important area for ecological protection and high-quality development. With the data of land use, elevation, and gross domestic product (GDP) of the Shanxi section of the Yellow River Basin (SYRB) in 2000, 2010, and 2020, we employed the InVEST, Fragstats, and multi-scale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) models to investigate the distribution characteristics of habitat quality and its influencing factors within the SYRB. The results showed that cultivated land, forest, and grassland were the predominant land use types, followed by construction land and water area, while unused land accounted for small proportion. Between 2000 and 2020, the area of cultivated land in the SYRB had decreased and that of construction land had continuously increased. Habitat quality in the SYRB exhibited a declining trend, with a significant increase in the area of low-quality habitat, while change in high-qua-lity habitat area was not pronounced. Spatially, the habitat quality exhibited a pattern with higher values in the southeast and northwest, and lower values in the central and southwestern regions. The GDP and the rate of land urbanization negatively impacted habitat quality, exhibiting significant negative influences on the Zhongtiao Mountains in the south, the Taiyue Mountains in the east, and the Lyuliang Mountains in the west. Conversely, the aggregation index positively influenced habitat quality, with the range gradually expanding from the central area to the periphery and diminishing over time. The contagion index primarily exhibited negative impact on area with low habitat quality. The patch richness index mainly demonstrated a negative influence on area with high habitat quality. The Shannon evenness index predominantly affected habitat quality negatively in area with high vegetation coverage. Our results indicated the complex interaction between ecosystems and human activities. This study would provide a theoretical basis for the formulation of effective ecological protection policies and the sustainable development of ecosystems.

Key words: Yellow River Basin, habitat quality, land use, multi-scale geographically weighted regression model, influencing factor