Abstract
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS,
VOL. 36,
L05401,
5 PP., 2009
doi:10.1029/2008GL036702
Mudslide-caused ecosystem degradation following Wenchuan earthquake 2008
Department of Geological Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, China
School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, USA
Department of Geological Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, USA
School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, USA
Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
We have applied a scalable and extensible geo-fluid model (SEGMENT) that considers soil mechanics, vegetation transpiration and root mechanical reinforcement, and hydrological processes to simulate two dimensional maps of the landslides occurrence following the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. Modeled locations and areas generally agree with observations. The model suggests that the potential energy of earth was lowered by 1.52 × 1015 J by these landslides. With this, the vegetation destroyed transfer ∼235 Tg C to the dead respiring pool and transforms 5.54 × 10−2 Tg N into unavailable sediments pools and the atmosphere. The cumulative CO2 release to the atmosphere over the coming decades is comparable to that caused by hurricane Katrina 2005 (∼105 Tg) and equivalent to ∼2% of current annual carbon emissions from global fossil fuel combustion. The nitrogen loss is twice as much as that released by the 2007 California Fire (∼2.5 × 10−2 Tg). A significant proportion of the nitrogen loss (14%) is in the form of nitrous oxide, which can affect the atmospheric ozone layer.
Received 25 November 2008; accepted 29 January 2009; published 4 March 2009.
Citation: (2009), Mudslide-caused ecosystem degradation following Wenchuan earthquake 2008, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L05401, doi:10.1029/2008GL036702.
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