Dynamic changes of Korean pine forest resources in Heilongjiang Province

Korean pine(Pinus koraiensis) forest is a typical climate vegetation in northeastern China. However, it was suffered from serious destruction in the last century. The changes in resource and landscape of Korean pine forest in Heilongjiang Province were studied, based on investigation data (1949-1998) and the map of forest resource distribution(1:2 500 000, 1949, 1986). The results showed that the area and volume of wood decreased severely and the relative proportion of total forest resource in Heilongjiang Province also decreased. The area of forest had skewed heavily towards young and middle-aged stands. The total area of Korean pine forest landscape and mean patch size decreased, while the quantity, density, and edge density of patches increased. The Korean pine forest landscape was severely fragmented and turned into broad-leaved mixed forest and non-forest land from 1949 to 1986.