Abstract: From the perspective of the main functional area, this paper took the counties in the Jianghan Plain as the research area, for the period 2000-2020. Based on carbon emission (absorption) calculation, the SOM-K-means clustering model and geographic detector were used to analyze and explore the spatiotemporal differentiation of carbon balance, carbon compensation zoning, and the associated influencing factors. The results indicated that: (1) The carbon balance was becoming increasingly imbalanced, with carbon emissions (absorption) showing a spatially uneven development trend. (2) The low-carbon development zone and carbon sink function zone in the carbon balance partition were mainly the agricultural production areas, while the high-carbon optimization zone was focused on developed areas, which aligned with the characteristics of agricultural regions. (3) Different influencing factors had a varying explanatory power for net carbon emissions and exhibited temporal and spatial differences, with agriculture production and urbanization being the main influencing factors. The characteristics of the agricultural region in the Jianghan Plain was significant, which was ideal for this case study to enrich our understanding of regional carbon balances, to summarize and extract geographical features of carbon balances, and to support the realization of "dual-carbon" goals.