Abstract: Vegetation restoration is an effective way to recover the ecological environment in mining area. However, our understanding of ecological processes in restoration is lacking. Two datasets in the year 2010 and 2015 from a 1 hm² permanently fixed monitoring plot (a mixed forest of Robinia pseudoacacia, Ulmus pumila and Ailanthus altissima) in Antaibao opencast coal mine, Shanxi Province, China, were used to analyze the dynamics of tree species composition, density and size class structure. The results showed that one species disappeared while another one appeared during 2010 to 2015. Importance value (IV) of R. pseudoacacia decreased significantly, whereas that of U. pumila substantially increased, indicating that the dominant species changed from R. pseudoacacia toU. pumila.The number of individuals with diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥1 cm increased from 2125 to 3531, with 768 dying and 2174 recruiting. The average annual mortality and recruitment rates were 8.97% and 19.13%, respectively. R. pseudoacacia had the highest mortality, while U. pumila had the highest recruitment. The basal area of the trees increased from 6.92 m²·hm^-2 to 8.63 m²·hm^-2. The changes of the basal area ofR. pseudoacacia were the largest among all the species. The annual average growth rate of tree DBH increased with the increases of DBH size classes. The DBH size class structure of community did not vary significantly during 2010 to 2015. Individuals with small DBH had higher mortality compared with large ones. DBH size class distribution of dead trees in 2015 was similar to that of the living tree species in 2010. The population of the three dominant tree species increased or decreased with an annual rate of >5%, indicating fast individual turnovers for those species. Amongwhich,R. pseudoacacia had the highest decline rate in population size (-10.36%), whereas U. pumila  had the highest increment rate (39.39%).

Key words: survival, light intensity, growth, Sepia pharaonis.