Platform to gauge ecological barrier's role as carbon sink

China plans to build a comprehensive forest carbon sink monitoring platform in the Qinling-Daba Mountains by 2027, offering crucial data on fluctuations in greenhouse gases to inform wider decision-making around carbon emissions reduction.

The Qinling-Daba Mountains serve as a vital ecological barrier in Central China, characterized by complex geographical transitions and high biodiversity. They span warm temperate and subtropical zones, and have a unique biogeographic distribution and significance.

"Leveraging five observation towers from the existing vertical zone research platform, the platform will further be equipped with various near-surface remote sensing instruments for greenhouse gas flux and carbon sink monitoring," said Xu Wenting, a researcher from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Xu said that each of the towers is between 50 and 60 meters and is set across different elevation gradients so that they have an overall observation of the mountains.

"The platform will establish a multi-point networked, integrated 'air-space-ground' carbon sink monitoring system, providing essential data as well as scientific and technological support for meeting the major strategic demands of China's dual carbon goals — to reach its carbon dioxide emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060," she said.

Xie Zongqiang, a researcher from the CAS, said this platform will be involved in the comprehensive planning of carbon sink monitoring by the CAS in 13 typical ecological system areas, including Changbai Mountain in Jilin province, Taihang Mountain in Beijing, as well as the Loess Plateau.

Xie highlighted the importance of the forest ecological system of the Qinling-Daba Mountains to serve as a net carbon sink.

"For the forest ecological system, photosynthesis is the process of converting carbon absorption into the biomass of plants, manifested by trees growing taller and thicker," he said, adding that the amount of carbon absorbed by trees during the day far exceeds carbon release by respiration at night. However, the establishment of the platform may turn this recognition into a clear account that can be settled.

The platform is expected to come into operation around 2027.