Mudslide-caused ecosystem degradation following Wenchuan earthquake 2008

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 loca...

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Main Authors: Ren, Diandong, Wang, J., Fu, R., Karoly, D., Hong, Y., Leslie, Lance, Fu, C., Huang, G.
Format: Journal Article
Published: AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION 2009
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/19120
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author Ren, Diandong
Wang, J.
Fu, R.
Karoly, D.
Hong, Y.
Leslie, Lance
Fu, C.
Huang, G.
author_facet Ren, Diandong
Wang, J.
Fu, R.
Karoly, D.
Hong, Y.
Leslie, Lance
Fu, C.
Huang, G.
author_sort Ren, Diandong
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description 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.
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format Journal Article
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T07:28:57Z
publishDate 2009
publisher AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-191202017-09-13T15:45:16Z Mudslide-caused ecosystem degradation following Wenchuan earthquake 2008 Ren, Diandong Wang, J. Fu, R. Karoly, D. Hong, Y. Leslie, Lance Fu, C. Huang, G. 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. 2009 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/19120 10.1029/2008GL036702 AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION unknown
spellingShingle Ren, Diandong
Wang, J.
Fu, R.
Karoly, D.
Hong, Y.
Leslie, Lance
Fu, C.
Huang, G.
Mudslide-caused ecosystem degradation following Wenchuan earthquake 2008
title Mudslide-caused ecosystem degradation following Wenchuan earthquake 2008
title_full Mudslide-caused ecosystem degradation following Wenchuan earthquake 2008
title_fullStr Mudslide-caused ecosystem degradation following Wenchuan earthquake 2008
title_full_unstemmed Mudslide-caused ecosystem degradation following Wenchuan earthquake 2008
title_short Mudslide-caused ecosystem degradation following Wenchuan earthquake 2008
title_sort mudslide-caused ecosystem degradation following wenchuan earthquake 2008
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/19120