| Many large scale ecological research networks have been sprung up since 1980s when the global environments were deteriorating rapidly, and the standardization of long term ecosystem research has been brought to agenda. The construction of standardization system and research in standardization have become urgent issues to be solved in the present forest ecosystem research networks, with the rapid development of Chinese Forest Ecosystem Research Network (CFERN) of the State Forestry Administration (SFA), and with an aim to improve the capacity in networking observation and forest ecosystem research stations and to speed up the progress so that China's forest ecosystem research networks would be geared to the international standards, to avoid technical barriers, and to promote China's voice and initiative internationally concerning ecological and environmental issues.The purpose of ecosystem research is to reveal the space-time transformation patterns of the structures and fucntions of the forest ecosystem and the response and adaption mechanisms to the environmental changes, to answer the major forestry science problems, and the vital method for such research is multi-process, multi-scale and trans-regional networking observation and research. Lacks in relevant criteria in forest ecosystem research have led to various understanding and inconsistent expressions among various research stations and researchers concerning forest ecosystem research, the various qualities of the research stations and research levels. The heterogenous observation data have made it difficult to compare and share, impeded the networking research among the forest ecosystem research stations and could not serve as theroy and data basis for the ecological environment construction and the socio-economic development of the nation. The overall framework of standardization system of forest ecosystem research is basically constructed by review and systematic analysis of the present situations in ecosystem research home and abroad, especially the present situations and the existing problems in forest ecosystem research, based on the principles and theories for constructing standardization systems and integrating the characteristics of forest ecosystem research, considering the present conditions that there lacks a complete standardization system for forest ecosystem research, the standardization is underdeveloped, relevant standards are missing, and the levels in ecological research stations, ecological research and the observation data are various, which makes it difficult to compare and share the data. At the same time, the construction processes of various standards, the sources, basis and implications of the standards are expatiated, which provides positive basis for the elaboration and revision of standards of forest ecosystem research, serves as a good foundation for regulating and improving the levels of forest ecological research station construction, observation and research, accumulating high quality data, achieving data sharing and network research, and provides positive reference for implementing forest ecosystem research in China. The main conclusion of this paper includes:(1) Review and summary are made concerning the present situations of standardization and existing problems of long term ecosystem research and sustainable forest management home and abroad especially about forest ecosystem research. Compared with abroad, the standardization of forest ecosystem observation in China has started considerably late and there lacks in the overall planning and standardization systems, the standardization work is underdeveloped, and the publicity and implementation of the standards are not enough, which has limited the development of internationalization, standardization, regulation and networking of forest ecosystem research.(2) The standardization system framework for forest ecosystem research is established from 6 aspects including construction guidelines for forest ecological research stations, the operation management, observation criteria systems, observation methods, data management and data utilization, by analysis of the characteristics of forest ecosystem observation, based on the sciences of systematics and ecology, guided by the standardization principles of simplicity, uniformity, coordination and optimization and the standard system characteristics of being systematic, scientific, advanced, extendible and practicable, by taking fully into consideration the distribution characteristics and regional differences of the forest ecosystems and referring to the standardization system construction in the relevant fields.(3)According to the components in forest ecosystem research and the present situations concerning the collection, transition, input and management of large scales of data by the forest ecosystem research stations, on the one hand, guided by the theories of ecology and ecosystem ecology, and based on the scientific and advanced observation and analysis equipment, the techniques requirements, the forest ecosyste m research stations are established from 8 aspects including the station infrastructures and comprehensive site experiment bases, forest meteorology observation equipments, forest hydrology observation equipments, forest organism observation equipments, soil observation equipments, observation equipments for forest health and sustainable forest management, observation equipments for soil and water conservation and counterpart data management equipments. On the other hand, by way of digitalization, the technical regulations for digital forest ecosystem stations are set up from the aspects of digital observation and data collection equipments, digital data transition equipments, data processing and analysis equipments as well as the infrastructure construction of digital forest ecosystem stations. Meanwhile, the sources, basis and implications of every criterion in the technical regulations for forest ecosystem station construction are elaborated and expatiated. Systematic and comprehensive technical regulations for forest ecosystem station construction will meet both the ordinary requirements to build the forest ecosystem stations and the requirements to build high quality forest ecosystem stations.(4) 94 indicators are set down for forest ecosystem research from 5 aspects including regular meteorological indicators, and the physical and chemical indicators of forest soil, forest ecosystem health and sustainable forest development, forest hydrology, forest community characteristics, by analysis of and reference to the criteria and indicators of long term ecosystem research and observation and sustainable forest management as well as the other relevant research outputs, and by application of the integrated method of expert analysis and frequency analysis. At the same time, in accordance with the distribution characteristics and specific traits of different forest ecosystems, the indicator systems are built up for the forest ecosystem observation and research on the forests in the tropical zone, warm temperate zone, cold temperate zone and the arid-and-semiarid zone, and the sources, basis and implications of every indicator are elaborated and expatiated.(5) With an aim to meet the requirements of forest ecosystem research development, by analysis of the forest ecosystem research methods home and abroad, based on the long term and continuous characteristics of site-specific observation, by way of system design, concerning the 28 key ecological problems in field observation and research concerning water, soil, air, organism and the other fields, the site specific forest ecosystem observation methods are established from observation contents, observation and sampling methods and data processing, and the sources, basis and implications of every indicator are elaborated and expatiated, by arranging the field observation system according to the structures and functions of ecosystems, by applying the new techniques and methods, and by thorough reference to the research methods and the relevant criteria in site specific ecosystem observation home and abroad.(6) Various observation data are classified, data management regulations for forest ecosystem research are established from 3 fields including management indicators, management methods and information management system, the sources, basis and implications of every indicator are elaborated and expatiated, based on the characteristics of the observation data in forest ecosystem research, by thorough digestion and application of the advanced experiences in digitalization and intellectualization and the relevant criteria home and abroad, and in line with the internal relationships among different indicators of forest ecosystem research systems.(7) The service functions of the forest ecosystem embody the application and utilization of the observation data of forest ecosystem research. The appraisal regulations on the service functions of forest ecosystems are set up involving 14 indicators in 8 aspects, water conservation, soil conservation, carbon fixation and oxygen release, nutrient accumulation, air purification, forest protection, biodiversity protection and forest recreation, and the sources, basis and implications of every indicator are elaborated and expatiated, by analysis of the indicators and methods applied in appraisal of the service functions of forest ecosystems home and abroad and by the integrated method of expert workshop method and frequency analysis method.(8) The construction of the standardization system of forest ecosystem research is a long-term process and shall be continuously developed, enriched and completed with the rapid progresses of science and technologies.
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