Abstract: Modeling techniques are indispensable for the researches on the carbon cycle of forest ecosystem. In this paper, a new general simulation system FORCASS (FORest CArbon Simulation System) was designed and developed under Simulink environment, with the objectives of modeling the carbon cycle dynamics of forest ecosystems. A comprehensive analysis on the framework, design solution, and development process showed that the FORCASS was feasible. This simulation system had the characteristics of 1) it divided the carbon storage in forest ecosystem into four compartments, i.e., vegetation, litter, soil, and animal, and took into account the carbon flows between the compartments, possessing high mechanism and
easily to be comprehended, 2) it was a processbased system, taking the Richards growth function of vegetation component biomass carbon storage as the input to solve difference equations, and was easily to export the outputs such as net primary productivity (NPP) and net ecosystem productivity (NEP) at different stand ages, and 3) it had the explicit expansibility because it was developed based on a general framework for carbon cycle patterns.

Key words: forest ecosystem, carbon cycle, simulation system, design, pattern.