What was done
The authors used northeast China forest inventory datasets for the three inventory periods of 1984-1988, 1989-1993 and 1994-1998, plus NOAA/AVHRR Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data from 1982 to 1999, to estimate changes in forest carbon (C) stocks in this region over the last two decades, during which time this part of China experienced, in their words, "the largest increase in temperature over the past several decades in the country."

What was learned
The four researchers determined that fully 75% of the forest area in northeast China experienced an increase in biomass C density over the period of study, and that forest biomass C stocks increased by a total of 7%, primarily as a result of large increases in two humid mountain areas, the Changbai Mountains and northern Xiaoxing'anling Mountains. Noting the "significantly positive relationships between NDVI and temperature in these regions," they concluded that "climate warming may be the key driving force for this C increase," since "over the past two decades, the average temperature in the forest region of northeast China has increased with a mean increase rate of 0.066°C/year." Also, in this regard, it is worth noting that the atmosphere's CO2 concentration increased by approximately 8%.

What it means
During a period of time when the "twin evils" of the radical environmentalist movement - atmospheric temperature and CO2 concentration - rose by amounts the world's climate alarmists claim were unprecedented over the past thousand to a million or more years, respectively, forest C stocks in northeast China rose ever higher with each passing year. Clearly, something is drastically wrong with this picture ... and it's not the real-world data.