Since the 21st Century, the rapid development of the Chinese economy has sped up the transformation and reconfiguration of the urban-rural spatial structure and industrial structure. Land urbanization raises several issues caused by urban expansion, such as inefficient land use, uncontrollable construction areas, abandoned rural settlements, etc. Meanwhile, it further leads to cultivated land changing to non-agriculturalization, non-food, and marginalization due to urban agglomeration along with urbanization such as the population, capital, and industry. Cultivated land, as one of the most variable land use types, is an essential support for rural development. It is conducive to realizing the utilization of cultivated land, developing sustainable land management, and promoting sustainable region development to explore the spatial-temporal evolution and its influencing factors of cultivated land functions. Taking the 24 counties in the Dongting Lake area of Hunan Province as an example, the study analyzed the spatial-temporal evolution, spatial divergence, and influencing factors of cultivated land functions from economic production, social security, and ecological maintenance by using the entropy and geodetector method. Results show that 1) the economic production function of cultivated land showed a general upward trend from 1998 to 2018 and distributed in the central and southwestern Dongting Lake area with better agricultural development. The social security function has improved significantly, showing a decline in three regions (Linli, Jinshi, and Dingcheng). The spatial pattern of ecological maintenance functions is changing slightly, with the high in the central and low on both sides. 2) Natural geographical conditions are conducive to cultivated land function at an early stage, weakening over time gradually. Socio-economic factors on the spatial differentiation of cultivated land functions increase with the development of the social economy. The ability increases as it improves to impact the spatial differentiation of cultivated land functions. The interaction among multiple factors can significantly enhance cultivated land's spatial differentiation and promote diversified development.

Keywords： cultivated land function; diversified functions development; geo-detector; the Dongting Lake area