Impacts of Wenchuan Earthquake-Induced Landslides on Tree Organ Nutrients

The Wenchuan Earthquake critically damaged soil environment, but weakly changed the aboveground growing environment of the trees. Whether and how earthquake-induced landslides impact tree organ nutrients related with the survival and recovery of trees in next years have never been examined globally, but that is important to understand how difficulty and diversity the ecological restoration is in the areas. This study demonstrated that the landslides significantly changed tree organ nutrients, but the changes varied with different tree organs and species. In Cupressus funebris, Mn content increased in needles, Fe and S contents did in branches, no nutrient changes occurred in roots. For Cryptomeria fortunei, foliar P content increased, nutrient contents did not alter in branches, total organic carbon decreased in roots. The increased foliar nutrients in both species imply that the nutrient changes are associated with the improvement of photosynthetic processes and enhancement of biomass allocation to roots so as to reinforce the survival and recovery ability of both species growing in the disturbed belowground environment.