Abstract:

Carbon storage has been an important scientific term in the field of climate change and ecological environment research since early 1970s, and it was also used occasionally in the medical field before. Traditionally, “Carbon storage” means carbon (carbon dioxide or carbohydrate) accumulated or sequestrated in an interested system. In recent years, this term has appeared more and more frequently in the academic papers in the field of climate change and ecological environment, and its connotation is gradually expanding, whether in its list of the carbonaceous components or in the scope of the interested system. At present, the term “Carbon storage” appeared in different contexts can be accordingly translated as “碳贮留(碳贮量)”, “碳蓄积(碳蓄积量)”or “碳封存(碳封存量)”, etc. However, some misunderstandings in the process of standardization of Chinese characters and terms in early 1980s made “碳贮量”, the correct translation of the scientific term, in Chinese literature, to be gradually excluded, while “碳储量”, the inappropriate translation was popularized instead. A large number of papers published by some beginners in the field of climate change and ecological environment research who is lack of the ability to distinguish them have caused the amount of the Chinese literature using the inappropriate term “碳储量” to multiply year by year, while the correct term “碳贮量” has gradually disappeared. We suggest that the China National Committee for Terminology in Science and Technology (CNTERM) take measures to standardize the Chinese name of this scientific term as soon as possible.

Key words: Carbon Storage, climate change, ecological environment, Chinese translation of terms