Terrestrial ecosystems in East Asia cover large land area and represent many vegetation types including boreal forests, temperate forests, tropical forests, grassland, deserts, and crop fields extending from the Arctic to equator. Therefore, knowledge of the carbon dynamics of the terrestrial ecosystems in East Asia is essential to advance our understanding of global carbon and water budgets and prediction of the impacts of climate change.　Our major objectives are to:

1.identify important mechanisms that drive carbon cycling in various terrestrial ecosystems, natural and managed;

2.quantify the distribution and strength of carbon sink/source, and their spatial and temporal variability and uncertainty;

3.examine functional type of vegetation and its spatial distribution pattern, carbon assimilation processes and its driving mechanisms, and interactive relationship between vegetation type and carbon cycle;

4.develop a new generation of carbon cycle models;

5.evaluate influences of land use and climate changes on carbon cycle of ecosystems;

6.provide scientific insights into carbon sequestration potentials of the terrestrial ecosystems, and political suggestions on reduction in carbon emissions; and

7.quantify the contribution of terrestrial ecosystems in East Asia to global carbon balance.