Abstract:Forests play an important role in global carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation strategies because they are the main component of a terrestrial ecosystem. The dynamic biomass carbon stocks and carbon sink economic value assessment of forests are important ways of assessing the global carbon cycle. Based on the forest inventory data between 2004-2008 and 2009-2013 in Shandong Province, and the updated biomass-volume relationship retrieved from field measurements, the dynamic changes of biomass carbon stocks and the economic value for Shandong's forests from 2004 to 2013 were estimated using the continuous biomass expansion factor method. The results showed that forest areas, biomass carbon stocks, and carbon density increased significantly from 156.12×104hm2, 34.75Tg C and 22.26Mg C/hm2 between 2004 and 2008 to 161.44×104hm2, 43.98Tg C and 27.24Mg C/hm2 between 2009 and 2013 in Shandong, respectively. Planted forests dominantly contributed to the increases in forest areas, biomass carbon stocks, and carbon density. About 97.3% and 2.7% of the biomass carbon sink were contributed by planted and natural forests, respectively. The biomass carbon stocks of Populus and hard broadleaf and soft broadleaf forests accounted for 70.2% of the provincial total during the period 2004-2008 and 69.6% during the period 2009-2013. Populus forests held the highest increase in biomass carbon stocks and carbon density during the study period. The magnitude of biomass carbon stocks followed the sequence young forests > middle-aged forests > mature forests > premature forests > overmature forests. The total economic value of the biomass carbon sink for Shandong's forests increased from RMB 24.337 billion yuan for the period of 2004-2008 to RMB 25.342 billion yuan for the period of 2009-2013, with the increment of RMB 0.201 billion yuan per year. The economic value of Populus forests amounted to 60% of the total for all forest types in Shandong. Pinus densiflora forests had the greatest carbon sink economic value per unit area of 2.08×104yuan/hm2.