Abstract:

Primary forest refers to the forest formed by the natural succession of native tree species, without obvious traces of human interference, and the ecological process has not been significantly affected. With complex structure and ecological functions, it is the most stable carbon storage and resource bank in nature, and plays an important role in global climate regulation and human survival and development. To clarify and standardize the concept and monitoring method of primary forest in the research field is conducive to the inventory, protection, and monitoring of primary forest resources in the world. Based on reviewing the concept of primary forest at home and abroad, this study summarized the characteristics of primary forest, analyzed the status quo of inventory and monitoring of primary forest resources at home and abroad, and summarized the important ecological functions of primary forest: 1) Carbon neutrality, carbon source, and carbon pool hypothesis about the existence of carbon sequestration capacity of primary forest; 2) Primary forest has better hydrological regulation function than other forests; 3) It is a species gene bank with outstanding biodiversity conservation functions. Based on the existing problems in the concept and monitoring of primary forests, the paper puts forward some suggestions for future research: to classify primary forests separately in forest resource inventory; the ecological function of primary forests should be studied, carbon sequestration potential of primary forest and soil respiration should be studied; Increase studies on the hydrologic regulation capacity of primary forests and explore the role of primary forests in mitigating global climate change; explore the biodiversity conservation functions of primary forests to reduce global biodiversity loss.

Key words: primary forest, natural forest, concept, ecological function, sustainable management