Regional differences of water conservation in Beijing's forest ecosystem

The water conservation capacities of main forests in Beijing, China were estimated through the quantitative analysis. Various methods developed in published papers on forest hydrology were employed. The forests in Huairou, Yanqing, Miyun, Mentougou and Fangshan districts are the main contributors to water conservation (the cumulative ratio reaches 65%), and the forests in Tongzhou, Chaoyang, Shunyi and Daxing districts have the highest water conservation capacity (3000 m3/ha). Altitude and slope are the key factors to affect the water conservation capacity. The forests located in Plain Area, Hilly Area, Low Mountain, and Middle Mountain contributes 27%, 28%, 24% and 21% of the conserved water, respectively. The water conservation capacity of forests in Plain Area (2 948 m3/ha), is superior to the forests in other regions. And the forests situated on Flat Slope, Moderate Slope and Gentle Slope constitute the largest proportion (nearly 93%) of water conservation, while the forests on Flat Slope has the highest water conservation capacity (2 797 m3/ha), and the forest on Steep slope has the lowest water conservation capacity (948 m3/ha). © 2011 Northeast Forestry University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.