Spatiotemporal Variations and Coupling Characteristics of Landscape Patterns and Human Activity Intensity in a Tropical Rainforest National Park: A Case Study of the Limushan Area, Hainan, China

The Limushan Area of Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park is a biodiversity hotspot where ecological conservation areas are closely interwoven with surrounding human land-use activities. To examine the spatial relationships between landscape configuration and land-use-derived human activity intensity (HAI) in the Limushan Area and its surrounding regions, this study combined landscape pattern metrics, the HAI proxy, a four-quadrant model, and bivariate Local Moran’s I to compare endpoint differences, assess coupling characteristics and local spatial associations, and characterize model-defined human–land relationship types. The results showed that: (1) in both 2000 and 2020, the landscape patterns in the core conservation area of Limushan and the southern high-altitude areas were characterized by low landscape fragmentation, high landscape aggregation, and relatively low HAI, corresponding to more continuous forest landscapes; (2) the northern and eastern surrounding regions generally showed relatively higher landscape fragmentation and HAI, with local differences between 2000 and 2020 concentrated around developed areas and transportation corridors; (3) metric-specific bivariate LISA results showed that relatively high HAI was spatially associated with higher patch density (PD) and landscape shape index (LSI) and lower aggregation index (AI), particularly in developed areas surrounding the Limushan Area. After direction-consistent mapping to the conceptual four-quadrant framework, coordinated relationships were the dominant model-defined type, followed by antagonistic relationships, whereas transitions toward coordination and antagonism accounted for comparatively smaller proportions. Overall, the analysis characterized the spatial distribution of model-defined human–land relationship types and their endpoint changes between 2000 and 2020, highlighting peripheral developed areas and transition zones as locations requiring greater attention in conservation and land-use management.