Sparse Forest Land Research Articles

Identifying the Full Carbon Sink of Forest Vegetation: A Case Study in the Three Northeast Provinces of China

Accurate analysis of the carbon sink capacity of forest vegetation is particularly important for achieving China’s carbon neutral strategy. In this study, we put forward the concept of the full carbon sink, which includes the sink capacity of forest components carbon sink tree arbors and bushes, sparse forest land, unclosed forest land, other shrubs, nursery, barren mountain shrubs, urban and rural green areas surrounding trees and scattered forests, and forest soil. The plot measurement method was used based on the forest resource inventory data and the plot data of the China Forest Ecosystem Research Network to accurately estimate the full carbon sequestration of forest vegetation in the Three Northeastern Provinces. The results showed that the full carbon sink is 69.45 TgC yr−1, which is equivalent to neutralizing 22% of carbon emissions from energy consumption. Among the three provinces, the vegetation of Heilongjiang Province was the largest carbon sink, accounting for 63% of the total. Regarding the contribution of each component to the full carbon sink, tree arbors accounted for 78%, followed by other forest vegetation at 13%, then soil at 9%. Crop output was the main factor influencing the spatial pattern of the full carbon sink. The full carbon sink of forest vegetation can objectively reflect the important role of forestry in achieving the carbon neutrality strategy.

Spatiotemporal characteristics of soil erosion in a typical watershed consisting of different landscape: A case study of the Qin River Basin.

Soil erosion has a severe impact on habitat and productivity. It is considered to be a major environmental threat prevalent in ecosystems. However, few researchers have studied the spatial distribution of soil erosion intensity among different geographic environmental factors. The Qin River Basin is a geographical unit consisting of mountains, hills, and plains with significant regional characteristics, and it has a basin area of 14,810.91 km2. This study uses the Geographical Information Systems, Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation model to analyze the spatiotemporal changes in the soil-erosion intensity in the Qin River Basin from 1990 to 2018. Different environmental factors of land use, slope and altitude on erosion intensities of 19 secondary land types were analyzed. It can better reflect the soil erosion under different environmental factors and different land use types. Results show that the soil erosion modulus of Qin River Basin were 10.25 t hm−2 a−1, and it belong to slight erosion from 1990 to 2018. Soil erosion intensity is greater in grassland and woodland than in cropland. The strongest soil erosion occurred in the sparse forestland, and the lowest was in beach land. Soil erosion was the highest for a slope of 15~25° and an altitude of 1200~1500 m. Rainfall and slope are important factors lead to soil erosion, indicating weak water and soil conservation implemented in these areas. Therefore, priority should be given to these geomorphic units to formulate and implement soil-erosion control and ecological restoration policies in the Qin River Basin. This study provides a good reference for preventing and controlling soil erosion in river basins.

Spatial and temporal changes of land uses and its relationship with surface temperature in western Iran

A split-window algorithm has been used in the Ilam dam watershed to determine the relationship between land surface temperature (LST) and types of land use. Landsat satellite images of the TM sensor for 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010 and Landsat 8 (OLI Sensor) for 2015 and 2018 are used. After geometric and radiometric corrections of satellite images, land use maps are extracted by using the fuzzy ARTMAP method. An accuracy assessment showed that the highest value of the kappa coefficient was 94% with a total accuracy of 0.95 for 2015, and the lowest kappa coefficient value was 87% with a total accuracy of 0.9 for 1990. The high values of these coefficients indicate the acceptable accuracy of using Landsat’s remote sensing data for land use detection. The most important land use change is related to dense forest and sparse forest land uses, with decreases of 20.07 and 17.04%, respectively. The minimum LST measures in 1990, 2010, and 2018 in dense forest are 21.27, 30.55 and 33.82 ºC, respectively. The maximum LSTs for the sparse forest land use in 1990 and 2010 are 52.48 and 56.09, and 56.10 ºC for the dense forest land use in 2018. As a result, the average LST in agricultural lands was lower than in sparse forest and rangeland;, which is mainly due to the high moisture content and the greater evapotranspiration rate. Land use/land cover variations from 1990 to 2018 show that all land uses have experienced an increase in LST.

Spatial Assessment of Jerusalem Artichoke’s Potential as an Energy Crop in the Marginal Land of the Shaanxi Province, China

As a foodstuff crop, Jerusalem artichoke has a promising prospect for providing sustainable feed-stock sources for bioenergy development. Due to relatively limited cultivated land resources in China, it is crucial to evaluate Jerusalem artichoke’s potential production capacity in marginal land. Based on Jerusalem artichoke’s growth and photosynthetic characteristics, the agricultural production systems simulator model (APSIM) and multi-factor integrated assessment method were integrated to provide an operational method for comprehensively evaluating the marginal land resources suitable for developing the plantation of Jerusalem artichoke in the Shaanxi province, China. The results showed that 0.73 million ha of marginal land was suitable for Jerusalem artichoke cultivation in the Shaanxi province, and 5.4 million ha of marginal land was fairly suitable for Jerusalem artichoke cultivation, with the yield reaching 44,289 kg/ha and 38,861 kg/ha, respectively. The suitable land resources are mainly located in Yan’an (0.18 million ha), Hanzhong (0.13 million ha), and Baoji (0.08 million ha), most of which are moderate dense grassland (accounting for 50.6% of suitable land), dense grassland (accounting for 16.2% of suitable land), shrubland (accounting for 14.7% of suitable land), and sparse forest land (accounting for 9.18% of suitable land). The findings of this study can be used to establish targeted policies for Jerusalem artichoke development in China and other countries, particularly those along the Silk Road.

Construction of urban landscape ecological security pattern based on circuit theory: A case study of Hengyang City, Hunan Province, China.

The identification of ecological sources and corridors plays an important role in the construction of ecological security pattern. However, previous studies mainly concentrated on the optimal path selection of species migration and diffusion rather than the random path selection of the species, which makes most conclusions fail to objectively reveal the process of species migration and diffusion. Taking the downtown area of Hengyang City as an example, we selected the ecological sources and ecological corridors with the habitat quality analysis module of InVEST and Circuitscape 4.0 and evaluated the importance and connectivity of relevant ecological elements with the Linkage Mapper, with the aim to construct the ecological security pattern and delimitate the regions prior to ecological restoration. The results showed that there were 85 ecological sources dominated by woodland and grassland, together with a small number of ponds and beaches, which mainly distributed in the southwest of Zhengxiang District, the west of Yanfeng District, the northeast and south central of Zhuhui District, with a total area of 11.8 km2. There were 60 ecological sources with centrality greater than 100, accounting for 70.6% of the total. There were 217 ecological corridors and five potential ecological corridors mainly composed of forest land, among which the proportion of shrubbery and sparse forest land was higher. The corridors with higher importance were mainly distributed in the west of the studied area. After removing the barriers, the regional connectivity had been significantly improved, with the highest extent of 54.9%. The priority areas of ecological restoration were classified into three levels according to the value of cumulative current, namely, the high-grade area, the middle-grade area and the low-grade area. The high-grade area covered 4.3 km2 of barriers, mainly distributed in the southwest of Zhengxiang District, northeast and south central of Zhuhui District. The middle-grade area was dominated by pinch area and ecological source area with centrality less than 100, covering an area of about 12.9 km2, mainly distributed in the central part of Zhengxiang District, northeast and south central of Zhuhui District. The low-level area was mainly distributed in south central of Zhuhui District, with 51.8 km2 of residual ecological sources. By coupling InVEST habitat quality analysis module and circuit theory, the ecological security pattern for biological protection was constructed, which provides scientific reference for biological protection.

Study on Ecological Water Requirement of Vegetation in Wuhai Based on GIS

Wuhai City is located in Inner Mongolia, belongs to the arid and semi-arid area of Northwest China, where precipitation is scarce, vegetation coverage is low and evaporation is large. With the exploitation of coal resources, the cultivated land area is gradually reduced and the surface is seriously damaged. After mining, a large number of mines and coal gangue piles are left behind, causing serious ecological problems. In order to ensure the normal growth of vegetation in Wuhai City, it is of great significance to study the ecological water demand of vegetation in Wuhai City for the realization of reasonable allocation of water resources, ecological restoration of mines and sustainable development of the city. Based on remote sensing satellite image data, combined with land use type map and ground meteorological data, this paper analyzes the spatial and temporal variation characteristics of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in Wuhai City, calculates the evapotranspiration of vegetation in reference year, and obtains the ecological water demand of vegetation in Wuhai City by using area quota method according to different water demand spatial areas. The results showed that: in the total ecological water demand of vegetation in Wuhai City, the water demand of medium coverage grassland was the largest, reaching 407.59 mm, while that of forest land was the smallest, reaching 309.01 mm. The other water requirements from large to small are: low coverage grassland, high coverage grassland, sparse forest land, shrub land. Grassland accounts for 98% of ecological water demand, while woodland only accounts for 2%. The total ecological water demand is 326 million m3.

Analysing Temporal and Spatial Changes in Land Cover: the Case of Drahna Forest Subdistrict Directorate

Aim of study: In this study, changes in land cover and land use from designing forest management plans within a plan unit up until today in the field of study are analysed under various categories.Field of study: Drahna Forest Subdistrict Directorate (FSD) under Ulus Forest Operation Directorate (FOD) of Zonguldak Regional Directorate of Forestry (RDF) was selected as the field of this study.Material and Method: Forest management plans and forest cover type maps for the related plan unit were utilized in the study. Forest cover type maps for the years 1967-1986 and 1986-2005 were digitized by using Geographical Information System tool ArcGIS version 10.4, whereas forest cover type map for the years 2006-2024 was obtained digitized from the relevant authority.Results: It was found that there was an increase of 227.6 ha in forest land in addition to a decrease of 227.6 ha in non-forest land between 1967 and 2006. It was also determined that there was a decrease of 2,295.33 ha in sparse forest land (with less than 10% canopy closure) whereas an increase of 2,523 ha in productive forest land (canopy closure above 11%). Further, a decrease of 369.91 ha in agricultural land in contrast with an increase of 36.69 ha in treeless forest land (TFL) and of 105.62 ha in settlement land were observed as well in non-forest lands.Emphasis of study: Within a period of 40 years between 1967 and 2006, immigration led to decreases in agricultural land and increases in forest land within the field of this study.

The Effect of the Gully Land Consolidation Project on Soil Erosion and Crop Production on a Typical Watershed in the Loess Plateau

The Gully Land Consolidation Project (GLCP) was launched to create more arable land by excavating soil from the slopes on both sides of gullies, combined with simultaneous comprehensive gully prevention and control measures. The purpose of the GLCP is to increase crop production and reduce soil erosion to achieve ecological and agricultural sustainability. In this study, we assess the effects of the GLCP on soil erosion and crop production by studying the BaoChengGou Watershed in the Loess Plateau, primarily by means of high spatial-resolution satellite images (taken by the GF-1 and ZY-3 satellites) combined with the InVEST model and field investigations. Sloping cropland, sparse forestland, and natural grassland are the main land use types in the study area. After implementing the GLCP, consolidated land in the cropland increased by 7.35%, an increase that has come largely at the expense of grassland and forestland. The GLCP has markedly reduced soil erosion in the BaoChengGou Watershed, especially in the sense that soil erosion intensity was also reduced significantly in the project region on the whole, despite intensifying in certain places, such as excavated slopes; furthermore, it has improved crop yields in the study area by 10.9%. Comprehensive measurement shows the GLCP to be scientific, reasonable, and clearly efficacious. This study presents findings regarding the positive significance of the GLCP in promoting ecological and agricultural sustainability in the Loess Plateau.

Thermal environment effects and interactions of reservoirs and forests as urban blue-green infrastructures

Blue-green infrastructures, including reservoirs, lakes, forests and green spaces, play important roles in the microclimate environment. This study investigated the effects of blue-green infrastructures on the surface temperature adjacent to 12 reservoirs in the Pearl River Delta area, China. The temperature of each reservoir and its surrounding environment was retrieved by Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) remote sensing imagery. The relationship between the temperature fields around the reservoir and the influencing factors was analyzed with statistical analysis. The results showed that distance (D), underlying surface type, and reservoir capacity (V) had significant effects on the temperature fields around the reservoirs. The temperatures across distances of 0–100 m and 0–200 m away from the reservoir boundary had a linear relationship with distance. The effect of the reservoir on temperature gradually declined when the distance exceeded 200 m. In the 0–300 m range, a quadratic equation with an intercept best fitted the relationship between temperature and distance. Four types of underlying surfaces, including built-up land, bare land, sparse forest land and forest land, were quantified by the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Subsequently, a quadratic model expressing the correlation between temperature and the NDVI was obtained. Moreover, the surface temperature at the reservoir edge was negatively correlated to V. Finally, a multiple nonlinear regression equation was found to effectively describe the influence of D, NDVI and V on temperature fields around reservoirs. The influence of reservoir and vegetation (i.e., NDVI) on the field and their contributions were calculated by mathematical methods. The effects of the reservoir and vegetation on the peripheral temperature interacted with each other; the influence of the reservoir and the vegetation on temperature declined and increased, respectively, as distance increased. By addressing the influence of reservoirs and forests on temperature fields and cooling contribution rates, this study provides more insight into the role of blue-green infrastructure in the urban thermal environment.

Prediction of land-use change and its driving forces in an ecological restoration watershed of the Loess hilly region

Land-use change is one of the important topics of regional ecological restoration research, but it exhibits high interdependencies in social-ecological systems which make it difficult to predict spatiotemporal variability and identify the main drivers. We employ long-term dynamic predictions utilizing an integrated cellular automata–Markov (CA–Markov) model and geographic information system technology, and reveal trends of land-use change and the driving forces in an ecological restoration watershed of the Loess hilly region. Here, we show that dry land showed a rising transfer trend to shrub land, sparse forestland, middle-coverage grassland, low-coverage grassland, and rural settlements from 1995 to 2010. Dry land, forestland, sparse forestland, middle-coverage grassland, and rural settlements will maintain a slight decreasing trend from 2010 to 2020, but other forestland, low-coverage grassland, and reservoir or pond may have a gradual increasing trend. Farmland and forestland in 2050 decrease by 8.17% and increase by 46.3%, respectively, compared with that in 1980. Grassland shows an overall downward trend. Water area increases first and then decreases. Rural settlements increase rapidly with a growth rate of 88.8% from 1980 to 2050. The returning farmland policy and the decline of agricultural population may be the main driving forces and positively affect the transfer of dry land to forestland. Our results may provide underlying insights needed to guide the planning and management of regional land resources.

Evaluation of the potential land for biofuel plant development in the Shaanxi Province, China

As a renewable energy, biofuel has greatly attracted worldwide attention due to the growing demands for cleaner sources of energy as an intervention to mitigate the serious environmental problems associated with fossil fuel consumption. As an important non‐food biodiesel plant, Pistacia chinensis has a promising prospect for bioenergy development. Based on the principles of multifactor integrated assessment, this paper provides an operational method for comprehensively evaluating the marginal land resources suitable for developing the plantation of Pistacia chinensis in Shaanxi province, China. The results show that the areas of marginal land resources suitable and fairly suitable for growing Pistacia chinensis in Shaanxi province are 1.21 million hectares and 4.45 million hectares, respectively. The suitable land resources are mainly located in Hanzhong (0.44 million hectares), Ankang (0.30 million hectares), and Shangluo (0.31 million hectares), most of which are moderate dense grassland (accounting for 50.65%), dense grassland (accounting for 21.83%), shrub land (accounting for 8.62%), and sparse forest land (accounting for 15.32%). The comparison between the results and field work data suggests that the pixel size of spatial data and soil organic matter content have important impacts on the final results. The outcome of this research can be used to implement specific policies for developing Pistacia chinensis in China and other countries especially the countries along the Silk Road.

Evaluation of potential productivity of woody energy crops on marginal land in China

Energy crops are a basic material in the bioenergy industry, and they can also mitigate carbon emissions and have environmental benefits when planted on marginal lands. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential productivity of energy crops on marginal lands in China. A mechanistic model, combined with energy crop and land use characteristics, and meteorological and soil parameters, was used to simulate the potential productivity of energy crops. There were three main results. 1) The total marginal land in China was determined to be 104.78 × 106 ha. The 400-mm precipitation boundary line, which is the dividing line between the semi-humid and semi-arid zones in China, also divided the marginal land into shrub land and sparse forest land in the southeast and bare land, bare rock land, and saline alkali land in the northeast. 2) The total area of the marginal land suitable for planting energy crops was determined to be 55.82 × 106 ha, with Xanthoceras sorbifolia and Cerasus humilis mainly grown in the northern China, Jatropha curcas and Cornus wilsoniana mainly grown in the southwest and southeast, and Pistacia chinensis mainly grown in the central area, while also having a northeast-southwest zonal distribution. 3) Taking the highest yield in overlapping areas, the potential productivity of target energy crops was determined to be 32.63 × 106 t/yr. Without considering the overlapping areas, the potential productivity was 6.81 × 106 t/yr from X. sorbifolia, 8.86 × 106 t/yr from C. humilis, 7.18 × 106 t/yr from J. curcas, 9.55 × 106 t/yr from P. chinensis, and 7.78 × 106 t/yr from C. wilsoniana.

Discovering the patient within

The gently winding road from Jackson Hole to Yellowstone National Park follows the imposing Grand Teton mountains, which rise abruptly out of the flat plains of northwestern Wyoming. In May, the heavily snow-laden peaks contrasted dramatically with the skies above and lakes below. To the east lay sparse forestland within which I would soon make an unexpected discovery. Jack Wasey, MD, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, reviewed the manuscript for non-intellectual content.

Back to Von Thunen: a Southern European perspective on mono-centric urban growth, economic structure and non-urban land decline

ABSTRACTThis study assesses trends (1960–2010) in forest cover over a Mediterranean metropolitan region (Attica, Greece) with the aim to investigate the role of local contexts promoting changes in the use of land. Forest cover decreased in a spatially heterogeneous manner over the study period determining a land-use structure coherent with the Von Thunen mono-centric model. We used a multivariate exploratory analysis of 26 contextual variables to identify changes in the urban spatial structure at the local scale. The shift from a land-use structure based on urban–rural and cropland-forest polarizations in the early 1960s to a pattern based on the polarization in medium-density, mixed urban/agricultural areas and low-density, sparse forest land has been observed in the last 50 years. Urban expansion into rural land and the establishment of protected areas in economically marginal and remote districts has been identified as relevant drivers of landscape transformation in the area. Our study demonstrates that land-use changes driven by expansion of dispersed settlements may consolidate mono-centric urban structures. A concentric land-use distribution around the central city is compatible with urban sprawl and may be indirectly supported by ‘green belt’ regional planning and environmental policies protecting high-quality natural land.

Spatial-temporal variation of marginal land suitable for energy plants from 1990 to 2010 in China.

Energy plants are the main source of bioenergy which will play an increasingly important role in future energy supplies. With limited cultivated land resources in China, the development of energy plants may primarily rely on the marginal land. In this study, based on the land use data from 1990 to 2010(every 5 years is a period) and other auxiliary data, the distribution of marginal land suitable for energy plants was determined using multi-factors integrated assessment method. The variation of land use type and spatial distribution of marginal land suitable for energy plants of different decades were analyzed. The results indicate that the total amount of marginal land suitable for energy plants decreased from 136.501 million ha to 114.225 million ha from 1990 to 2010. The reduced land use types are primarily shrub land, sparse forest land, moderate dense grassland and sparse grassland, and large variation areas are located in Guangxi, Tibet, Heilongjiang, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. The results of this study will provide more effective data reference and decision making support for the long-term planning of bioenergy resources.

A comparison between soil loss evaluation index and the C-factor of RUSLE: a case study in the Loess Plateau of China

Abstract. Land use and land cover are most important in quantifying soil erosion. Based on the C-factor of the popular soil erosion model, Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and a scale-pattern-process theory in landscape ecology, we proposed a multi-scale soil loss evaluation index (SL) to evaluate the effects of land use patterns on soil erosion. We examined the advantages and shortcomings of SL for small watershed (SLsw) by comparing to the C-factor used in RUSLE. We used the Yanhe watershed located on China's Loess Plateau as a case study to demonstrate the utilities of SLsw. The SLsw calculation involves the delineations of the drainage network and sub-watershed boundaries, the calculations of soil loss horizontal distance index, the soil loss vertical distance index, slope steepness, rainfall-runoff erosivity, soil erodibility, and cover and management practice. We used several extensions within the geographic information system (GIS), and AVSWAT2000 hydrological model to derive all the required GIS layers. We compared the SLsw with the C-factor to identify spatial patterns to understand the causes for the differences. The SLsw values for the Yanhe watershed are in the range of 0.15 to 0.45, and there are 593 sub-watersheds with SLsw values that are lower than the C-factor values (LOW) and 227 sub-watersheds with SLsw values higher than the C-factor values (HIGH). The HIGH area have greater rainfall-runoff erosivity than LOW area for all land use types. The cultivated land is located on the steeper slope or is closer to the drainage network in the horizontal direction in HIGH area in comparison to LOW area. The results imply that SLsw can be used to identify the effect of land use distribution on soil loss, whereas the C-factor has less power to do it. Both HIGH and LOW areas have similar soil erodibility values for all land use types. The average vertical distances of forest land and sparse forest land to the drainage network are shorter in LOW area than that in HIGH area. Other land use types have shorter average vertical distances in HIGH area than that LOW area. SLsw has advantages over C-factor in its ability to specify the subwatersheds that require the land use patterns optimization by adjusting the locations of land uses to minimize soil loss.

Rural Land Use Change during 1986-2002 in Lijiang, China, Based on Remote Sensing and GIS Data.

As a local environmental issue with global importance, land use/land cover change (LUCC) has always been one of the key issues in geography and environmental studies with the expansion of regional case studies. While most of LUCC studies in China have focused on urban land use change, meanwhile, compared with the rapid change of urban land use in the coastal areas of eastern China, slow but distinct rural land use changes have also occurred in the mountainous areas of western China since the late 1980s. In this case through a study in Lijiang County of Yunnan Province, with the application of remote sensing data and geographic information system techniques, the process of rural land use change in mountain areas of western China was monitored through extensive statistical analysis of detailed regional data. The results showed significant increases in construction land, paddy field and dry land, and a decrease in dense forest land and waste grassland between 1986 and 2002. The conversions between dense forest land and sparse forest land, grassland, waste grassland and dry land were the primary processes of rural land use change. Sparse forest land had the highest rate of land use change, with glacier or snow-capped land the lowest; while human settlement and rural economic development were found to be the main driving forces of regional difference in the integrated land use change rate among the 24 towns of Lijiang County. Quantified through landscape metrics, spatial patterns of rural land use change were represented as an increase in landscape diversity and landscape fragmentation, and the regularization of patch shapes, suggesting the intensification of human disturbances and degradation of ecological quality in the rural landscape.

Simulation of the impact of climate fluctuation and land-cover changes on annual runoff in the Suomo Basin

Forest degradation has been widely acknowledged to be the main cause for the 1998 Yangtze River flooding. Of the two crucial reasons of for flooding,climate fluctuation and land-cover change,which one on earth acted as the leading factor? In order to probe this issue, the Suomo Basin on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River was chosen as a study area. About forty years' climate fluctuation and land-cover changes in the Suomo Basin were analyzed in this paper. Precipitation deceased by 19.3 mm from the 1960s to the 1970s and increased by 61.2 mm from the 1970s to the 1990s. According to three decades land-cover maps, the primary land-cover changes are that forestland turned into sparse and shrub by forestland, and the shrubby and sparse forestland turned into grassland. Forestland deceased by 12% from 1970 to 1986. A dump hydrological model, CHARM (Climate and Human Activities-sensitive Runoff Model), was adopted to simulate the impact of climate fluctuation and land-cover changes on runoff discharge and to divide their contributions to annual runoff. From the 1960s to the 1980s, runoff depth increased by 45.7 mm. Among them, 63.9% was caused by climate fluctuation, 20.8% was the result of the land-cover changes and the remaining 15.3% was system error. In other words, 1/5-runoff change was caused by land-cover change and 3/5-runoff change was caused by climate fluctuation. From this simulated conclusion, we can get an elementary explanation about the Yangtze River flooding in 1998. Possibly it is climate fluctuation,rather than forest degradation that is the leading factor for the flood.

Forest cover types derived from Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery for Changbai Mountain area of China

The distributions of various forest cover types on Changbai Mountain of northeastern China were examined by interpreting Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite data. The area studied consists of the Changbai Nature Reserve plus an 8 km wide buffer zone. The dominant forest cover types were mixed Korean pine (Pinuskoraiensis Sieb. & Zucc.) hardwood forest below 1100 m above sea level (asl) and evergreen coniferous forest between 1100 and 1650 m asl. These two forest cover types accounted for about 70% of the area inside the reserve, and 50% of the area outside the reserve. Other forest cover types included aspen (Populusdavidiana Dode) –white birch (Betulaplatyphylla Sukachev) forest, hardwood forest, larch (Larixolgensis A. Henry) forest, sparse forest land, and mountain birch (Betulaermanii Cham.) forest. Above the forest line (1950 m asl), a zone of tundra was distributed on the top of Changbai Mountain. The mountain birch forest was located between tundra and the evergreen forest. Human-altered areas, including forest clearcuts and urban areas, accounted for only 10% of the whole study area. More than 90% (in area) of the human-altered areas was found in the zone surrounding the reserve. To better protect the old-growth forest ecosystems inside and outside Changbai Nature Reserve, conservation planning for the reserve and forest management for the surrounding area need to be modified.