Landscape Pattern and Succession of Chinese Fir Plantations in Jiangle County, China

Abstract

Since the early 1980s, in southern China, evergreen broad-leaved forests have been replaced by Chinese fir plantations on a large scale. By analyzing the dynamic change characteristics of the landscape pattern of Chinese fir plantations in the case study, the paper explored the current status and development trend of the landscape pattern of Chinese fir plantations after 40 years of manual intervention and natural succession. The paper, based on the three-period survey data on forest resources in 2010, 2015, and 2020, analyzed the dynamic changes of the landscape pattern of Chinese fir plantations from 2010 to 2020 and, by using a transition matrix and landscape index, simulated and predicted the landscape pattern of Chinese fir plantations in Jiangle County in 2025 by constructing a CA–Markov model with Jiangle County, Fujian Province, China, as the study area. The results showed that the landscape of Chinese fir plantations is the main component of the forest landscape in southern China, accounting for 12%. The landscape quality of Chinese fir plantations degraded, mainly shown in the facts that the Chinese fir plantations were juvenile from 2010 to 2020, and that the young and middle-aged forests became the main part of the landscape of Chinese fir plantations, accounting for 54.8%. The landscape area of Chinese fir plantations showed an increasing trend, which mainly came from other coniferous forests, other woodlands, non-woodlands and non-wood forests, and the replaced Chinese fir plantations were mainly eroded by bamboo forests. The evergreen broad-leaved forests, a kind of zonal vegetation, have been effectively protected in the past 10 years. In the future, the total area of Chinese fir plantations will continue to expand, and a small part of them will continue to be eroded by bamboo forests. In order to improve the landscape quality of Chinese fir plantations, it is necessary to adjust the age group structure of Chinese fir plantations, expand the proportion of mature forests, and, meanwhile, continue to protect evergreen broad-leaved forests and curb the expansion of bamboo forests.