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