[Spatial point patterns and their association dynamics of forest landscapes in Maoershan region, Northeast China between 1983 and 2016.].

Researches on the dynamics of spatial point patterns and their associations of forest landscape has important implications for maintaining forest stability and making forest management decisions. Based on the four period datasets of forest resource inventory in Maoershan region in 1983, 1993, 2004, and 2016, the O-ring statistics within Programita software (version 2010) was used to quantitatively analyze the dynamics of spatial point patterns and associations. The results showed that the cover percentage of soft-wood broadleaved mixed forest (SBM) significantly decreased, the percentage of natural Quercus mongolica (NMO) increased in the beginning, and then became lower. The percentage of hard broadleaved mixed forest (HBM), Larix gmelinii (RLG) and Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica (RPS) plantations increased dramatically from 1983 to 2016. During the study period, the scale of clumped distribution for the SBM, HBM, NMO all significantly decreased with the increasing spatial scale. The clumped distribution ranging from 0-7 km decreased to 0-3 km, and then tended to be random or uniform distribution with the further increases of spatial scale. The patterns of RLG showed aggregated distribution within the small scale and tended to be random or uniform distribution with the increasing scale. However, the range of scale of uniform distribution increased and random distribution decreased. The patterns of RPS showed clumped distribution within small scale (0-4 km) and the range of scale tended to be larger. On the whole, the spatial association between most of the landscape types within the small scale showed negative association. With the increases of scale, these landscape types gradually become non-association or positive association. However, only a few landscape types (e.g. RLG and RPS in 1983) showed positive association in a small scale. With the increases of scale, all the relationship tended to be non-association. The dynamics of the association of forest landscapes showed different regularity. The dynamics of spatial point patterns and associations of Maoershan region were the comprehensive results of the forest management during 1983 and 2016.