Some of these gases and what happens to them in photochemical reactions are also important, as infrared and reactive active species can accumulate in the atmosphere and alter climate and oxidative capacity in the global environment.

The ad hoc USA-PRC Committee for the Joint Study of Global Change, under the co-chairmanship of James N. Galloway (University of Virginia) and James Gosz (University of New Mexico) was established to facilitate the development of cooperative studies by organizing and funding project development workshops. By 1991, six areas and co-principal investigators had been identified and five bilateral workshops had been held: climate-vegetation interactions, precipitation composition, global change education (proposal pending), air and water transport of soils (two funded proposals), background concentrations of trace gas fluxes to the atmosphere (proposal pending), and building links between the Chinese Ecological Research Network and the U.S. Long-Term Ecological Network (three funded projects).