The forest ecosystem plays a critical role in water conservation in mountain area.In order to study the water conservation functions

the present research investigated the hydrological effects of the forest ecosystem from forest canopy

litter

and soil layer in subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest(EBLF)in Tiantong National Forest Park

Zhejiang Province.Chronosequence method was used in this study.We chose secondary shrubs

Schima superb-dominated forest

and Castanopsis fargesii-dominated forest to represent early succession(SS)

sub-climax EBLF(SE)

and climax EBLF(CE)

respectively.The values of evaluation indices were calculated based on weights determined by the method of analytical hierarchy process(AHP).The results showed that water conservation functions increased through succession.The CE stan d had theｒbest water conservation function(0.436 0)among three successional stages of EBLFs

followed by SE(0.363 2)

ｄand SS had the worst(0.200 9).This study highlighted that AHP was an effective quantitative method forｇevaluating forest water conservation f