Abstract: In the field of global climate change study, scientists have paid an great attention to identify CO₂ sources and sinks in the terrestrial ecosystems. It has been predicted that the forest ecosystems would become a CO₂ sink because of its huge capacity for storing carbon. Based on our previous study on the biomass of forest ecosystems in China, this study is to analyze the temporal change in carbon storage of forest ecosystems, and estimate the difference between actual and potential carbon storage of forest ecosystems in China. It is showed that the actual carbon storage is only 44.3% of the potential one in the forest ecosystem of China.

Key words: southern China, seasonal drought, drought division, subzone assessment.