In October 2012, the President of the Institute of Foresters of Australia, Mr Rob de Fégely, visited China at the invitation of the Chinese Society of Forestry. Previous interaction between foresters of the two countries included projects sponsored by agencies of the Australian government (AusAID and ACIAR), centred on the cultivation and use of Australian forest species, particularly eucalypts and acacias, in southern China. A number of papers arising directly and indirectly from that work have appeared in previous issues of Australian Forestry.
Whilst in Beijing, the president and his hosts agreed to foster a special issue of this journal featuring papers of mutual interest from China and in particular from the Beijing Forestry University.
It has not been possible, however, to gather sufficient papers to make a timely special issue, so in this issue are the two papers from the university already published online. More may be published in future issues as they become available.
The papers report research on temporal change in soil carbon and management of soil water in plantations, topics relevant to productivity of plantations in many environments. These papers are by graduate students of the Beijing Forestry University; we hope readers enjoy them as examples of the research conducted at the university. More such contributions may be published in future as they become available.