In recent years, the continuous increase in greenhouse gas concentrations, particularly the rising emissions of carbon dioxide, has exacerbated global climate warming, accelerated ice and snow melting, and intensified ecosystem degradation. Carbon storage, as a critical component of ecosystem regulatory functions, plays a vital role in mitigating climate issues such as the greenhouse effect by absorbing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide. Since the 1860s, the frequency of human activities has significantly increased, accelerating changes in land use patterns and contributing to a series of environmental challenges, including global climate change. To address these issues, various countries and regions have formulated carbon neutrality goals and strengthened land management and planning. Particularly under the "dual-carbon" strategy, understanding the response of carbon storage to climate change and human activities has become increasingly important. Current research on carbon storage has not adequately addressed the dynamic changes in carbon storage on an annual basis across different time periods, thus failing to capture the detailed changes in carbon storage. Additionally, the factors influencing carbon storage are often considered from a limited perspective, making it challenging to identify the key drivers of changes in carbon storage. This study, utilizing annual land use/land cover data from 1990 to 2022, employs the InVEST model to calculate yearly carbon storage, and combines Sen+MK trend analysis and Spearman correlation analysis to explore the trend of carbon storage changes and their driving factors in the Qilian Mountain National Park. The findings indicate that: 1) Over the past 33 years, there has been significant spatial variation in carbon storage in the region, with an average carbon storage of 112.12 t. The total carbon storage has shown a slight upward trend, with areas of significant change accounting for only 1.11% of the total area. 2) Among different land use/land cover types, forests exhibit the highest carbon storage capacity, while grasslands, due to their extensive distribution, account for the largest total carbon storage. 3) Topography (excluding aspect), soil, climate, and soil factors are all significantly correlated with carbon storage. Specifically, temperature (r=0.489), evapotranspiration (r=0.406), and human footprint (r=0.460) have a significantly stronger positive driving effect on carbon storage than precipitation, clay, and fine silt, while altitude negatively drives carbon storage (r=-0.514). This study reveals the spatiotemporal variation of carbon storage in the region and provides an in-depth analysis of the key factors influencing carbon storage, offering important scientific support for future ecological protection and carbon sink management.