"Coupling Research on Carbon, Nitrogen, and H2O in Tropical and Subtropical Forest Ecosystems" Wins the First Class Prize of Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Awards

The Annual Science and Technology Award Meeting of Guangdong Province was held in Guangzhou on July 30, 2007. One research project "Coupling research on carbon, nitrogen, and H2O in tropical and subtropical forest ecosystems (Project code: A03-1-01)" accomplished by Profs. ZHOU Guoyi, YAN Junhua, ZHANG Deqiang, MO Jiangming, et al., in SCBG received the first class prize of 2006' Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Awards. Profs ZHOU Guoyi and ZHANG Deqiang presented themselves at the meeting.

Based on long-term field observations and experiments, several advanced approaches in ecological research, such as eddy covariance, stable isotope, and ecological modeling were used in this project. Major achievements of this project include the following: 1) it illuminated the relationship between forest structure and its hydrological functions in tropical and subtropical forests; 2) it found out how C/N ratio impacts on soil nitrogen processes in tropical and subtropical forests at different successional stages; 3) it revealed soil organic matter dynamics in recent 20 years in successional tropical and subtropical forests; 4) it predicated carbon and nitrogen patterns and their trend in successional forests in light of human impact and global climate change; 5) it proposed hydrological carbon and nitrogen cycling mode in tropical and subtropical forest ecosystems; and 6) it investigated the interaction between litterfall decomposition and carbon, nitrogen cycling in tropical and subtropical forest ecosystems. Achievements of this project were published in 2 monographs, 32 SCI papers, and 10 EI papers. Major research methods and results were cited by 179 SCI papers and 867 domestic research papers.

This project was funded by Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, Natural Science Foundation of China, ChineseAcademy of Sciences, and National Ministry of Science and Technology.