Abstract: Aims： The establishment of an ecological security pattern serves as a pivotal pathway and safeguard for sustainable development in semi-arid regions. Taking the Hunshandak Sandy Land as the research subject, this study aims to provide a novel approach to ecological protection and the construction of an ecological security pattern in semi-arid regions, which integrates "Ecosystem Services (ES), landscape morphology, machine learning, and circuit theory." Additionally, we propose optimized environmental management strategies centered on the sustainable utilization of water and ecology, targeting ecological core areas, restoration zones, and improvement regions. Methods： We focused on Hunshandak Sandy Land and employed the "Ecological Source-Resistance Surface-Ecological Corridor" paradigm to assess six ecosystem services, including livestock production, carbon sequestration, water yield, soil conservation, sandstorm prevention, and habitat quality. By integrating Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA), we identified core areas and water bodies as ecological source areas and employed a random forest model and spatial operations to generate the resistance surface. Furthermore, we used circuit theory, ecological corridors were identified and key ecological nodes were determined to establish the ecological security pattern within the Hunshandak Sandy Land, accompanied by the proposal of optimization recommendations. Important findings： The results indicated that:(1) The total area of the ecological source sites is 4674.17 km2, accounting for 14.96% of the total area, primarily concentrated in the eastern region. Ecological source sites in the central region are fragmented. (2) We identified 51 ecological corridors with a total length of 1351.66 km; there are 57 ecological nodes, mainly distributed in the central-southern and narrow corridors in the north. (3) The construction and optimization of the ecological security pattern from east to west in the Hunshandak Sandy Land, consisting of "Ecological source sites - Water - Restoration areas", have been completed.

Key words: Ecological security pattern, Ecosystem services, MSPA, Circuit theory, Hunshandak Sandy Land