Long-term effect of different planting proportions on forest landscape in Great Xing’an Mountains, Northeast China after the catastrophic fire in 1987

Abstract

A landscape model (LANDIS) was used to study the long-term forest dynamics under five planting types (100% larch (P1); 70% larch and 30% Mongolian Scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica) (P2); 50% larch and 50% Mongolian Scotch pine (P3); 30% larch and 70% Mongolian Scotch pine (P4); 100% Mongolian Scotch pine (P5)), which were also employed in severely burned area under current planting intensity, and under natural regeneration (as a comparison) in Tuqiang Forest Bureau in the northern slopes of Great Xing’an Mountains after the catastrophic fire in 1987. Results showed that different planting types had a significant influence on the abundance of larch, Mongolian Scotch pine and white birch. The abundance of larch increased with time, whereas the abundance of Mongolian Scotch pine was in a converse way. The abundance of larch and Mongolian Scotch pine under these planting scenarios was higher than that under natural regeneration. Under these planting scenarios, the abundance of larch increased with the increasing proportion of larch, and the abundance of Mongolian Scotch pine was in a similar way. Contrary to larch and Mongolian Scotch pine, white birch had higher abundance under natural regeneration than that under these planting scenarios. Also, the different proportions of larch and Mongolian Scotch pine had an influence on the abundance of white birch. White birch had higher abundance with the increasing proportion of Mongolian Scotch pine. As for the total abundance of larch and Mongolian Scotch pine, the difference was not significant under P2, P3 and P4 scenarios, but was higher than that under P1 and P5 scenarios, which indicated that individual-species planting should not be used in the forest landscape.