*2.5. Land Cover Map*

In order to compare the LAI differences among different biomes, the WestDC land cover map available from http://westdc.westgis.ac.cn was used (as Figure 1). It was produced based on the large-scale (1:100,000) land use database of China in 2000 made by Chinese Academy of Science [32]. The database was derived from Landsat MSS, TM, and ETM images, mainly by manual interpretation based on the experiences of experts and was validated by intensive field surveys. As found by Ran et al., WestDC land cover map has the highest accuracy over China and is employed as the reference map in the evaluation of land cover products over China [32].

**Figure 1.** WestDC Land cover map over China. ENF represents evergreen needleleaf forest, EBF represents evergreen broadleaf forest, DNF represents deciduous needleleaf forest, DBF represents deciduous broadleaf forest, MF represents mixed forest.
