Abstract:Subalpine forests in Western Sichuan suffered from longterm continuous deforestation in the second half of the 20th century, and a series of secondary forests on logging land have been formed by natural restoration, which provides the good natural experimental site for studying the forest vegetation succession and structure. In this study, by using the method of replacing space with time, we analyzed the changes of dominant species composition along vegetation restoration and their influencing factors in Miyaluo of western Sichuan. Our results showed that: (1) a significant difference in soil nutrient was found among different succession stages. The content of soil total nitrogen, soil total phosphorus, soil available phosphorus and soil available nitrogen were the highest in coniferousbroadleaved mixed forest stage. Soil pH values among different restoration stages were 5.42-7.39. Soil organic carbon presented an exponential growth pattern along time. The mean soil C/N value was about 15 and only soil C/N in coniferous forest was 18.62. (2) We recorded 16 major arbor tree species in research area. The dominant species in coniferous forest were Picea asperata and Abies faxoniana. While Betula albosinensis and Acer davidii were the dominant species in broadleaved forest. The analysis of community similarity showed that there was a significant difference in the composition of dominant species in arbor layer along the different recovery stages (RANOSINM = 0.439, P <0.001). (3) The analysis of the multivariate regression tree revealed that the variations of dominant species in arbor stratum were mainly influenced by forest age, soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN). The interspecific competition is the dominant factor affecting the difference of community composition in arbor layer before the 80 years of succession. However, environmental selection affects the tree species composition after 80 years. (4) The analysis of sequential tests showed that the variations of dominant trees species were primarily affected by soil TN, altitude, available phosphorus (AP) and SOC. The results can provide scientific basis for the restoration of degraded forests and secondary forest ecosystem management in the alpine region of western Sichuan.