Abstract: The river is the linkage of terrestrial and ocean carbon pools, the flux of which is a critical component of global carbon cycle. In this paper, The authors analyze the characteristics of the fluxes of particulate carbon from rivers to the ocean (FPC) in China and predicted their tendency based on the data obtained from Bulletin of Chinese River Sediment. The results indicate that, from 1965 to 2005, the annual mean FPC is 29.57TgC yr^-1, 36.02% of which is organic carbon, and the rest is inorganic carbon. FPC accounts for 42% of the river carbon fluxes. The quantity of particulate carbon flux from the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Pearl River accounts for 96.25% of the total amount in China. There is a decreasing tendency of FPC since 2003, while the ratio of organic part to the total shows an increasing tendency. The FPC of 2009 is only 6.59TgC穣r^-1, which is only 22.3% of the annual mean FPC from 1965 to 2005. Therefore, it is necessary to lay emphasis on the fluxes of particulate carbon in terms of its significant role in river carbon fluxes and terrestrial carbon budget.

Key words: carbon cycle, China, flux, particulate inorganic carbon, particulate organic carbon, soil erosion