Severe droughts have been associated with regional-scale forests mortality worldwide.Drought tolerance for tree species would be an important indicator for tree survival.Temperate forest in northeastern China plays a vital role in economic development and ecological environment construction of China. However,this forest is suffering project climate warming and drought.Therefore,it is urgent to assess the drought tolerance of trees in this forest.This study selected 8tree species,which included Betula platyphylla,Phellodendron amurense,Juglans mandshurica,Fraxinus mandshurica,Quercus mongolica, Ulmus japonica,Larix gmelinii,and Pinus koraiensis trees in a natural environment at Maoershan Forest Research Station in the eastern mountain region of northeast China,and simultaneously measured the 7water parameters derived from the PV curves and 5actual water indices including transpiration rate, twig/leaf predawn and midday water potential,water content at incipient injury and water-retaining capability. The difference of drought tolerance was evaluated by single water index and comprehensive water index.The results showed that:(1)water parameters by PV curvespsitlpandpsisatmeasure drought tolerance of eight species,respectively,drought tolerance evaluation by single water index was different or even completely contradictory with each other,but by PV curve water parameters including psisat-psitlp, RWCtlp,ROWCtlp,epsilonmaxand b values are basically identical.The order of drought tolerance was as follows: P.koraiensis>J.mandshurica>P.amurense>B.platyphylla>L.gmelinii>Q.mongolica>U. japonica>F.mandshurica.(2)According to the comprehensive evaluation results of 7PV curve water parameters,the order of drought tolerance of 8tree species was as following:P.koraiensis>J.mandshurica> P.amurense>L.gmelinii>Q.mongolica>B.platyphylla>U.japonica>F.mandshurica; according to the comprehensive evaluation results of 5actual water indices,the order of drought tolerance of 8tree species was as following:P.koraiensis>Q.mongolica>L.gmelinii>P.amurense>F. mandshurica>U.japonica>B.platyphylla>J.mandshurica;there were some differences between them,especially the positions of J.mandshurica,Q.mongolica and F.mandshurica changed greatly. (3)The order of comprehensive drought tolerance based on 12water indices was as following:P.koraiensis> P.amurense>Q.mongolica>L.gmelinii>J.mandshurica>U.japonica>B.platyphylla>F. mandshurica.The study considers that the comprehensive evaluation results of 12water indices have good agreement with the natural distribution of species in the eastern mountain region of northeast China.