At present, there is lack of knowledge on how plant physiological processes, the transfer of carbon within the plant, carbon storage and remobilization in the plant tissues as well as the release of carbon from the roots to the soil interact with ecosystem-scale processes. On the background of global climate change, we need to mechanistically link plant physiology, CO2 net exchange between ecosystems and the atmosphere and plant biomass accumulation. This is the basis for predicting productivity of forests as well as their carbon sequestration potential in future. This paper will give an overview on how stable isotope studies can give insights into the fate of newly assimilated carbon transported within trees and transferred to the soil and atmosphere. The paper includes assessments characterizing temporal and spatial variation in the natural abundance of carbon and oxygen isotopes or applying isotopically enriched tracers. In addition, it highlights the fact that the stable isotope composition of assimilates transported within the plant contains important time integrated information on environmental conditions, leaf physiology, and post-photosynthetic metabolism. The paper on the one hand focuses on the fast turn over carbon pools, which fuel plant respiration and soil microbial activity and on the other hand explores the transfer of the isotope information to long-lived compounds in plant archives such as tree rings.