Forest, grassland, farmland and oth

Forest, grassland, farmland and other natural or semi-natural ecosystems are the source of many vital
ecosystem services in China – water retention, soil conservation, alternative transportation for product
supply, and distribution of material, energy and information flow – and they play a crucial role in
maintaining human welfare, safeguarding sustainable development of human society.
According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment the term “ecosystem services” includes
supporting services for regulating, provisioning and cultural services – in particular, regulation services
play a key role in the mitigation of natural disasters and maintenance of the global environment. However,
knowledge of these is still deficient.
Although many challenges still face the evaluation of ecosystem services, a great deal of assessment
has been carried out on regional and global scales[1, 2]. A method based on land use has been the main
approach to evaluating ecosystem services; however, the Wenchuan earthquake has significantly changed
the way in which the land is used in this region and has impacted strongly on ecosystem services.
After the earthquake, forest areas were reduced dramatically by 35 679.76 ha, a decrease of 7.66% of
the total forest area. The area of impervious surface increased from 24 558.61 ha to 67 935.41 ha.
Landscape fragmentation showed an obvious increase[3]. The forest ecosystem was seriously damaged by
the earthquake, with large areas of forest completely disappearing.[4] Surface fissures and loosened soil
has directly led to forest vegetation being damaged, tilted, broken or collapsed[5].
The Wenchuan earthquake occurred in the transition area between Qinghai on the Tibet Plateau to
Sichuan Basin, which is a biodiversity region important both in China and globally, and is also an
ecological barrier for Sichuan Province and the whole of the Yangtze River Basin[6-8]. The ecosystem
functions damaged by the earthquake will continue to affect the eco-environment for a long period of
time and will inevitably lead to the loss of certain critical ecosystem services, threatening the ecological
security of the entire Yangtze River Basin. Some studies have documented the changes in environmental
factors due to the earthquake, such as effects on the habitat of the giant panda, changes to land use and
cover, and to the ecological environment, the importance of ecological protection, and other aspects of
ecosystem service value[3, 6, 8-10]. Because of these factors, and the obvious regional differences in
these areas, we need to determine the losses to ecosystem services overall – and, more importantly, the
spatial pattern – if we are to fully understand the extent of the earthquake damage and develop and
implement post-earthquake reconstruction.
The aim of the paper are: 1) to assess the main ecosystem regulating services, including water
retention, soil conservation and carbon storage, in the area affected by the Wenchuan earthquake; 2) to
analysis the spatial variability of the loss of ecosystem services; and 3) to compare the impact of this
earthquake and other nature disasters on ecosystem services.