Abstract:Nowadays, innovation is becoming a powerful driving force behind the discipline development. With the strong long-term support of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the local government of Guangdong province, by means of long-term monitoring and innovative research, Dinghushan Forest Ecosystem Research Station (hereinafter referred to as the "Dinghushan Station") found the scientific phenomenon that old-growth forests can accumulate carbon in soils, illustrated the mechanism of forest organic matter accumulation and its driving mechanism from macroscopic to microscopic scale, leading the research on carbon, nitrogen, and water cycle processes of forest ecosystem, including their coupling in response to the environmental changes and the adaptation of the ecosystem, therefore, promoted the establishment of the ecological systems non-equilibrium theory. Dinghushan station acquired scientific quantification on the current carbon sequestration capacity and the potential of national forest ecosystems, which provided an important scientific support for the national environmental diplomacy. Such demonstration of a global pattern of forest and water yield, and accurately giving the critical value of the parameters describing water yield controlling factor linking climate and watershed characteristics, provided a new interpretation on the controversial of "the relationship between forest and water yield", it has far-reaching implications for scientific research and natural resource management. A shift in climate conditions could result in changes in tree species distribution and forest composition, whice has been verified by that the evergreen broad-leaved forest communities in China are changing toward shrub tendency, due to the adaptation to climate change in the past 30 years, such adaption was dominated by the main environmental factors, and the mechanism was demonstrated. These research conclusions provide theoretical support for the scientific evaluation of forest carbon sequestration and water resource, which meets the national needs for the construction of natural reserve and ecological environment. Until now, Dinghushan Station has become an irreplaceable national field scientific supporting platform and an international well-known research base of forest ecological systems. Meanwhile, it is also an ecology talent cultivation base for the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Guangdong region.