LAUSR

Abstract Typhoons episodically trigger landslides and export large quantities of particulate and dissolved organic carbon (POC and DOC) to the ocean from high-standing islands of the western North Pacific. On landslide scars, new soils are forming and organic carbon (OC) re-accumulates; however, these young soils may remain vulnerable to recurrent erosion. Here, we examined soil aggregate breakdown and concomitant release of OC from soils on recovering landslide scars in Taiwan. We calculated the kinetic energies of falling raindrops during two past typhoon events that hit Taiwan, i.e. Morakot (2009) and Fanapi (2010), at 137 kJ m−2 and 21 kJ m−2, respectively. Soils from a chronosequence of recovering landslide scars (6 to 41 yrs) in the Central Mountain Range of Taiwan were subjected to ultrasonic vibrations simulating those typhoon energies. The younger soils of the chronosequence (