Welcome to visit Scientia Silvae Sinicae,Today is

Scientia Silvae Sinicae ›› 2025, Vol. 61 ›› Issue (7): 220-230.doi: 10.11707/j.1001-7488.LYKX20250210

• Research papers • Previous Articles    

Effects of Stand Structure on Visually Morphological Quality of Beijing Urban Forests

Yupei Xu,Xuan Guo,Zuoyou Hu,Bingqian Ma,Jiaxin Guo,Yang Li,Qian Xiao,Tianxin Dong,Chengyang Xu*()   

  1. Research Center for Urban Forestry of Beijing Forestry University  State Key Laboratory of Efficient Production of Forest Resources  Key Laboratory for Silviculture and Forest Conservation of the Ministry of Education  Beijing 100083
  • Received:2025-04-16 Online:2025-07-20 Published:2025-07-25
  • Contact: Chengyang Xu E-mail:cyxu@bjfu.edu.cn

Abstract:

Objective: This study investigates how the composition of woody species and the physical structure of urban forest stands in central Beijing influence the visual quality of urban forest landscapes, aiming to further elucidate the underlying mechanisms by which stand structure shapes forest visual quality. Method: 145 plots with area of 30 m×30 m were selected according to 2 km×2 km geographic grid which are included into 8 of the fan-shaped transects. Indices of stand physical structure and stand species composition were constructed by principal component analysis using data from stand structural indicators, and integrate index of visually morphological traits (IIVT) was constructed by entropy weight method using visually morphological trait indicators (VMT) data. Analyze the impact of stand structure indicators and structural indices on visual morphological trait indicators、visual morphological trait index. Result: Crown round degree (CRD) was increased with DBH composition diversity and tree height composition diversity while it was decreased with degree of space occupation (DSO). Moreover crown asymmetry degree (CAD) was negatively affected by average tree height, total stand basil area and Berger-Parker index of dominant tree species (DBP) significantly, but CAD was positively affected by Margalef’s tree species richness, Shannon-Wiener index and Pielou evenness, and was increased with complexity of horizontal space (CHS). Meanwhile crown extension range (CER) was significantly declined with increase of average tree height and complexity of tree species composition(CSC). However the IIVT, which represented the overall VMT, was remarkably declined with enhancement of DSO, and it was no significant correlations with complexity of tree species composition and dominant of tree species composition. Conclusion: Urban forest within the sixth ring road is influenced by complexity of stand structure. Visually morphological trait indicators were obviously shaped by stand physical structure indicators, and were partly determined by stand species composition indicators, while IIVT was mainly affected by DSO. The lower effects of stand species composition index on IIVT were largely covered by the strong relations between stand physical structural indicators and species composition indicators. In other words, the stand species composition indirectly affects visually morphological quality through the stand physical structure of urban forest.

Key words: visually morphological traits, index of visually morphological traits, stand physical structure, stand species composition, urban forest

CLC Number: