Rational allocation of land resources can facilitate ecological sustainable development of the ecologically vulnerable riparian zone in the lower Yellow River. Here, we investigated the dynamic changes of land use, ecosystem service value (ESV) and carbon storage (Ct) of the riparian zone in the lower Yellow River from 2000 to 2020 by means of field investigation, ArcGIS, InVEST model and equivalent factor method. The results show that the area of wetland and construction land in the riparian zone of the lower Yellow River continued to increase from 2000 to 2020, of which the additional wetland mainly came from cultivated land and water area, and the additional construction land mainly came from cultivated land. The proportion of cultivated land and construction land increased with the increase of the distance from the river, whereas the proportion of grassland was on the contrary，which decreased with the increase of the distance from the river and the proportion of woodland didn’t change significantly with the distance from the river. From 2000 to 2010，the proportion of wetland decreased with the distance from the river，while the far shore wetland increased from 2010 to 2020，mainly located in the range from 200 to 500 m away from the river. The ESV of the riparian zone in the lower Yellow River first increased and then decreased from 2000 to 2020. Among the land use types，water area had the most significant impact on the ESV， followed by wetland，and the contribution rate of cultivated land，woodland and grassland was lower and unstable. As for the carbon storage，it increased gradually as a whole during the study period，among which the carbon storage of wetland increased gradually， whereas the carbon sequestration capacity of woodland，grassland and water area increased first and then decreased. Water and sediment conditions，human activities and national policies are all influencing factors of ecosystem service value and carbon storage of the riparian zone in the lower Yellow River. To address the weakening of ecological function of the riparian zone caused by human activities of water and sediment transport in the lower Yellow River，it is of great significance to improve the quality of wetland and encourage the conversion from cultivated land to woodland，grassland and water area，so as to enhance the ecosystem service value and carbon storage of the riparian zone.