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Background: Net primary productivity (NPP) in forests plays an important role in the global carbon cycle. However, it is not well known about the increase rate of China's forest NPP, and there are different opinions about the key factors controlling the variability of forest NPP. Methods: This paper established a statistics-based multiple regression model to estimate forest NPP, using the observed NPP, meteorological and remote sensing data in five major forest ecosystems. The fluctuation values of NPP and environment variables were extracted to identify the key variables influencing the variation of forest NPP by correlation analysis. Results: The long-term trends and annual fluctuations of forest NPP between 2000 and 2018 were examined. The results showed a significant increase in forest NPP for all five forest ecosystems, with an average rise of 5.2 gC·m− 2·year− 1 over China. Over 90% of the forest area had an increasing NPP range of 0–161 gC·m− 2·year− 1. Forest NPP had an interannual fluctuation of 50–269 gC·m− 2·year− 1 for the five major forest ecosystems. The evergreen broadleaf forest had the largest fluctuation. The variability in forest NPP was caused mainly by variations in precipitation, then by temperature fluctuations. Conclusions: All five forest ecosystems in China exhibited a significant increasing NPP along with annual fluctuations evidently during 2000–2018. The variations in China's forest NPP were controlled mainly by changes in precipitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past decade, observations of carbonyl sulfide (OCS or COS) have been investigated as a proxy for carbon uptake by plants. OCS is destroyed by enzymes that interact with CO2 during photosynthesis, namely carbonic anhydrase (CA) and RuBisCO, where CA is the more important. The majority of sources of OCS to the atmosphere are geographically separated from this large plant sink, whereas the sources and sinks of CO2 are co-located in ecosystems. The drawdown of OCS can therefore be related to the uptake of CO2 without the added complication of co-located emissions comparable in magnitude. Here we review the state of our understanding of the global OCS cycle and its applications to ecosystem carbon cycle science. OCS uptake is correlated well to plant carbon uptake, especially at the regional scale. OCS can be used in conjunction with other independent measures of ecosystem function, like solar-induced fluorescence and carbon and water isotope studies. More work needs to be done to generate global coverage for OCS observations and to link this powerful atmospheric tracer to systems where fundamental questions concerning the carbon and water cycle remain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resins of Hymenaea, an angiosperm tree genus known to be a copious resin producer and a major source of amber since the Oligo-Miocene, were collected from a wide range of tropical environments from Latin America and Africa, and analyzed for their carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen stable isotope composition. The average value for d 13C in the resins was found to be -27.0±1.3‰, which is very similar to the values reported for resins in other studies. d 18? values for the Hymenaea resins averaged +11.2±1.6‰, or about 20‰ more depleted than normal plant cellulose. dD values of the resins ranged from -196 to -319‰, with an average of -243±30‰. Rough estimates suggest a fractionation of -200 to -210‰ between the resins and the environmental water. This value is similar to the -200‰ value observed for the fractionation between other plant lipids and environmental water. The present study suggests that the stable isotope composition of fossil resins (amber) has the potential to provide information on ancient environmental waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]