Post-fire forest restoration indicated by canopy density in the northern great Hing'an mountains

Abstract

The restoration of forest landscape has drawn much attention since the catastrophic fire took place on the northern slope of Great Hing′an Mountains in 1987. Forest canopy density, which has close relation to forest productivity, was selected as a key factor to find how much the forest quality was changed 13 years after fire, and how fire severity, regeneration way and terrain factors influenced the restoration of forest canopy density, based on forest inventory data in China, using Kendall Bivariate Correlation Analysis, and Distances Correlation Analysis. The results showed that fire severity that was inversely correlated with forest canopy density grade was an initial factor among all that selected. Regeneration way which did not remarkably affect forest canopy density restoration in short period may shorten the cycle of forest succession and promote the forest productivity of conophorium in the future. Among the three terrain factors, the effect of slope was the strongest, the position on slope was the second and the aspect was the last © 2007 Springer Netherlands.