Spatio-temporal Variation of Distribution Patterns in Cunninghamia lanceolata Plantations

<正>To aid in management of Cunninghamia lanceolata,the main timber species in Southern China,its variation of spatial distribution pattern was analyzed.Three permanent plots of C.lanceolata plantations with approximately the same site conditions,set by China continuous forest inventory in Shunchang,Fujian,were selected. C.lanceolata growth was divided into two stages: young trees(5 cm≤diameter at breast height (DBH)<10 cm) and mature trees(DBH≥10 cm). The DBH and coordinates of every tree(DBH≥5 cm) in the permanent plots were recorded in 2003 and 2008.The function L(r),improvement of Ripley’s K(r),the paircorrelation function g(r),and the uniform angle index(Wi) were used to analyze the spatio-temporal variation of spatial distribution patterns.The three permanent plots had mean uniform angle index(W) between 0.494-0.578 at low altitudes,0.465-0.477 at medium altitudes,and 0.426-0.601 at high altitudes.Results showed that altitude did not affect the spatial distribution pattern. The L(r ) and g(r) function curves of mature trees were generally lower than young trees’,i.e.tend to be more random or uniform distribution.So regardless of the initial distribution of young or mature trees,with the passage of time,there was a tendency for the aggregated distribution to change to a random distribution,and a random distribution to change to a uniform distribution.