Abstract: To explore successional dynamics of community structure and associated soil response within Pinus massoniana forests, species composition, community structure and habitat properties were determined among three forests differing in restoration stages (i.e., 10, 20-30 and 50 a) in Guniujiang Nature Reserve in Anhui Province, by using a spacefortime substitution approach. The results showed that 1) with the succession, the species richness decreased, but the Shannon diversity index increased. The dominance of deciduous trees declined, but the dominance of evergreen trees progressed in the canopy layer; 2) The distribution of diameter size followed the unimodal type for P. massoniana across the three successional stages, but changed from L to inverse-J type for Castanopsis eyrei through forest succession; evergreen shrubs exhibited good performance in growth; 3) With the forest succession, soil total nitrogen and organic matter contents increased, and soil fertility increased gradually, while the pH value decreased.

Key words: antioxidant capacity, introduction and acclimatization, Rhodiola kirilowii, volatile constituent, bioactive compound