Forest landscape restoration and its affecting factors in burned area of northern Great Xing'an Mountains - Taking forest coverage as an example

Forest landscape restoration has been an attractive issue since the catastrophic fire took place on the northern slope of Great Xing'an Mountains in 1987. Based on the China forest inventory data and employing Kendall Bivariate and Distances Correlation Analyses, an investigation was made to search for what changes of the forest coverage pattern being happened in this area during the past 13 years after fire, and how the fire severity, foster type and terrain factors influenced the restoration of forest coverage. The results showed that the forest coverage in 2000 changed a lot, in comparing with that in 1987 before fire. The percentage of non-stocked land area and coverage grade declined markedly, with lower coverage grade increased. Among all test factors, fire severity which was inversely correlated with forest coverage grade was the key one. Though the regeneration measures didn't markedly affect forest coverage restoration within a short period, they might shorten the cycle of forest succession and promote the productivity of coniferous forest in the future. Among three terrain factors, slope was the strongest one affecting forest coverage, followed by position and aspect.