Quantification of Spatial Heterogeneity in Old Growth Forests of Korean Pine’

Spatial Ilctcroscncit?(Sti). &ich is gcncrally d&cd as the cotnplcsicy and variabiiit:. of a systctn propcrty(c.g.. \&.ctation type. population density. plant biomass. soil nttlricnls) in space. is of grcal intcrcst lo ccologisls studying litnctions and proccsscs of ecological S~SICIIIS a(various scales (Risscr ct al 19X-l. Tttrncr 19X7. Turner ct al 1031. Kolasa CI al 1091). Howcvcr. qumtitativc analysis of spatial hclcrogcncily is a VCQ inipoccncc iii ecological systnt and landscape studics(Li CI al 1995. Wcinc IOOZ). From the scttdics of spatial hck.rogcncicy. w can ~CI the dcgrccs and changes of spatial hctcrogc-ncity in dilkrcnt scales. and understand ~hc coniplcs proccsscs and Iixdback in ccos~s~ctta and. hd-scapcs(c.g. Moloiw~~ cl al 100 I). LI ct all 1905) d$ncd two approa&cs for awl\ Attg hctcrogcncil~ in landscnpcs: spalial chttraclcriir;llio~ and spalial comparison Spalinl choractcrktiion invqlv& the USC of n~alhcnxttical ddscriptors. cg.. scnktciognna. in~orntalion indicts. aiid lieclal. lo qttanlilj. lhc s&da1 variabilil> or Soinc propctlics of Imdncapcs. !+$&I characlcrization is useful IO dctcct puttcrns. i.c.. dcgrccs ol'spalial hclcrogcncit! and changes in spatial hclcrcgc-wit?. o\cr \ all\iny. spatial scales. This inlbmation. coupled willt obscr\a(ions and ccosystcn~ models , can bc useful to intcrprct obscrvcd pa~krus and lhcir cllkc~s on rumtons and proccsscs or ecological S~~CIW. Spatial comparison. on the other hand. ittvol\cs the USC of ntaO~ctnntical dcscrip1ors IO qttantilk and compare the smc variabilily or landscape propcrtics in the rollowing ways: I)bctmcn the smc yariablc PI difkrcnt sampling titncs IO dctcct changs in tt systctn.2)bctwccn ~hc saw variable a1 dilTcrcn1 sites to contrasl dilTcrcnl systctns, and 3)bctwcn dilkrcnt varioblcs a~ the snmc silt to establish relationships. Korean pinc(/'itm hmimvis). which oficn miscd with hardwods. typical old growth hrcst ccosystcn~. is a main important spccics in Northcast pati of China. Korean pint rorcsts is high dcgrccs of spatial hctcrogc-ncity in landscape. which controlled I~C fhction and proccsscs or ccosys~cro in spatial and lcnq~rttl. In this paper w USC the quanlilalivc tncthod 0r sciiiivariograni analysis. bolh spatial charactorimntion and spaktl comparison. LO discuss the spatial hcicrogcnctiy of old gro\\lh forcsls or korcan pint Scmivariogram analysis is based on the thco~~ 01 rcgionhcd variables. and it csamincs spatial wriatioa and correlation of' nacttrtil photma (hl~hcrot~ I Ni.