Abstract:Pinus massoniana is the main afforestation tree species in the south of China, and so it is important to study precise spatial distribution of the suitability of Pinus massoniana, which has high value for guiding evaluation of its degradation and selection of land for afforestation. In this study, interpolated results of meteorological factors such as precipitation and temperature in Hubei Province at a 30×30 m spatial level were attained by using the multivariate linear regression Kriging model. This model used meteorological factors as spatial variables. The cross-check results of interpolation were ≥ 90%. Meanwhile, the study used DEM data at a 30 m resolution to extract three terrain factor spatial variables:slope, aspect, and elevation. First, the study used the annual mean temperature, the min temperature of coldest month, the annual precipitation, the elevation, the soil type, and other restrictive factors to carry out spatial superposition to exclude unsuitable spatial units, and then, based on the 18 spatial variables and data from 294 samples, determined the suitability index of each grid by using the maximum entropy model (MAXENT). Finally, it performed a suitability classification for the suitability index in all grids and obtained the spatial distribution of the suitability of Pinus massoniana in the study area. Different from previous large-scale regional studies, this method allowed for accurate calculations at a small land unit scale. The results showed that the evaluation effect of the ROC model reached a good level (ROC=0.826). The elevation, soil, relative standard deviation of precipitation, the precipitation of wettest quarter, slope and annual mean temperature were the main factors affecting the suitability of Pinus massoniana in Hubei Province. The most suitable areas are mainly distributed in the northeast and north central areas of Hubei Province and areas with the elevation of less than 1200m, a slope of 40° or less, and an average annual temperature of 13-18℃. The moderately and highly suitable areas total 46,500 km2, accounting for 25.01% of the total area of Hubei Province.