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Comprehensive analysis of regional ecosystem characteristics and their driving mechanisms forms the basis for scientifically managing regional ecosystems. Having maintained its position as China’s top economic province for 36 consecutive years, Guangdong has witnessed continuous expansion in its economy and population, which has imposed escalating stress on its ecological systems. Consequently, examining the intrinsic synergistic relationships and underlying drivers of Ecosystem services is of paramount importance for achieving sustainable development in Guangdong. This study applied the InVEST model, a coupling coordination model, and Geodetector to comprehensively evaluate the trade-off, synergy, and driving mechanisms of Ecosystem services across four major ecosystem types in Guangdong from 2000 to 2020. The key findings are as follows: (1) From 2000 to 2020, the maximum annual water conservation per unit area of forest ecosystem in Guangdong Province was 2,619.42 mm, the average habitat quality was about 0.9, and the average annual NPP was 10,558.47 kgC/(m 2 •a). (2) The trade-off between urban and cultivated land ecosystems in Guangdong Province is obvious, and the trade-off between water conservation, NPP and habitat quality is significantly enhanced in dry years. (3) The relationship between ES and TOS of the same ecosystem is highly correlated and agglomerated in space. In dry years, long-term implementation of water conservation projects in western Zhaoqing, Yunfu, southeastern Meizhou and Chaoshan Plain may not effectively improve the overall ES. The findings offer empirically grounded insights for informing ecosystem planning and management strategies in Guangdong, with potential applicability to other global regions confronting analogous ecological and developmental pressures.