The Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in partnership with Chinese Academy Of Forestry, Institute of Botany, CAS, The Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Science, and Nanjing University are the recipients of a 20 million RMB grant from the Ministry of Science and Technology(MOST)for 973 Program “Equilibration relation of terrestrial carbon, nitrogen, and water fluxes and its response mechanisms to environment in China”.

Guirui Yu, professor and vice director of IGSNRR ,head of Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling（LENOM）, is the overall project director and lead principal investigator.

The primary focus of the project is to answer the question - How the increase in temperature, raise in CO2 concentration, changes in precipitation pattern and nitrogen deposition influence terrestrial carbon sequestration and it’s spatio-temporal and pattern.

“carbon, nitrogen, and water cycles and their responses to climate change has not been well understood due to the limitation in understanding the double driving mechanisms of climate change and human activities on carbon, nitrogen, and water cycles and the complexity of coupling carbon, nitrogen, and water cycles. Primary knowledge and prediction are still uncertain,” Dr.Guirui said, “Therefore, the launch of the project “Equilibration of terrestrial carbon, nitrogen, and water fluxes and its response mechanisms to environment in China” is the need for fighting against global climate change, for improving ecosystem management and ensuring ecosystem safety, and for promoting the scientific innovation in the earth system science and the global change science.”

The project will establish a scientific research platform for studying carbon, nitrogen, and water cycles of terrestrial ecosystems in China, named as ChinaFLUX-CN; conduct a long-term observation network and a multiple factor experiment network; develop a new process-based model coupled with remote sensing for carbon-nitrogen-water cycles modeling; and quantify the ecological stoichiometry characteristics of carbon, nitrogen, and water fluxes and their responses to climate change, based on previous studies on the North-South Transect of Eastern China (NSTEC) and China Grassland Transect (CGT), Chinese National Ecosystem Observation and Research Network (CNERN), and Chinese terrestrial ecosystem flux research network (ChinaFLUX).

Contact：meiling li (lim@igsnrr.ac.cn)