Abstract:  Aiming at the characteristics of diversity of land use requirements, various types of land cover and multiple functions in the agro-pastoral ecotone, this article introduces the land classification system to scientifically and reasonably simplify and summarize the land types, in order to achieve the sustainable economic growth of the ecologically fragile land in the agro-pastoral ecotone. Based on the interpretation data of land utilization from 1990 to 2020, and on the basis of land use classification system of production-living-ecological space （PLES）and function scores, the  agriculture and pasture interlaced area in western Jilin  Province is selected as the demonstration area, and the characteristics of spatial-temporal differentiation of PLES in the research area and its coupling and coordination changes for nearly 31 years are discussed by using the coupling and coordination model. The results show that: 1) From 1990 to 2020, the production and living space began to expand, while the ecological space showed a decreasing trend. 2) The distribution pattern and change of PLES in western Jilin Province are obviously different, the expansion of production space is mainly located on the western edge of the Songnen plain, the distribution of living space is relatively scattered with the most expansion in the core area of prefecture-level cities, and the reduced scope of ecological space basically coincides with the expanded scope of living space. 3) The overall development process of coupling and coordination in western Jilin Province is in a running-in and moderate state, and it is increasing year by year. For different levels of development in different counties, it shows the characteristics of “high in the east and low in the west”. The seriously imbalanced areas are Tongyu County and Da’an City, with poor coordination. According to the research results, it is suggested that the distribution pattern and evolution of PLES should be the basis to formulate the relevant policies and regulations, so as to support and promote the construction of ecological civilization and the coordinated development of regional economy and ecological protection.

Key words: agro-pastoral ecotone, production-living-ecological space, spatial-temporal evolution, coupling coordination