The Southern Forest Research Partnership (SFRP) and USFS Southern Research Station are hosting a workshop on the critical processes and properties regulating carbon cycling in southern forests. The goal of this workshop is to bring together scientists from diverse fields to assess the current state of knowledge of the important processes regulating carbon cycling and sequestration in southern forest ecosystems. Of particular interest are the analytical methods, instrumentation, and experimental approaches needed to quantify these critical processes. The output from these discussions should identify important research needs, new experimental approaches, and generate collaborative research efforts that will advance carbon-cycling science in southern forest.