Land cover change is a important effect on carbon cycle. In order to estimate changes in carbon pools and fluxes to the atmosphere

we used Landsat TM data of 1992 and 1996 to calculate the extent of different land cover types and their change to each other in the estuary area of Yellow River delta. Image processing and unsupervised classification allowed the production of accurate land cover maps of 1992 and 1996

and then the changes were detected. Estimation of carbon pools and fluxes to the atmosphere was carried out using the results of Landsat image analysis and published data about carbon stocks in vegetation and soil. The results showed that the vegetation carbon reserves was 11.43×10+5t

the soil carbon reserves was 7.24×10+6t in 1992

while the area of forest increased 146.76×10+2hm+2

and the vegetation carbon reserves increased 7.43×10+5t during the four years from 1992 to 1996. So the land cover change lead to an increasing in carbon reserves in this area. It is a carbon pools in the global change progress.