Recon?guring Disturbance, Succession, and Forest Management: The Science of Mount St. Helens When Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980, it did more than just recon?gure a large piece of Cascadian landscape. It also led to dramatic revisions in our perspectives on disturbances, secondary succession, and forestry practices. The Mount St. Helens landscape turned out to be a far more complex place than the "moonscape" that it initially appeared to be. Granted, a large area was literally scoured and sterilized, and that vast expanse of newly formed rock, mud?ows, and avalanche debris up and down the mountain made the Mount St. Helens landscape unique. But I still remember my surprise when, as I stepped out of the helicopter on ?rst landing within the extensive "devastated zone," I saw hundreds of plants pushing their way up through the mantel of tephra. Surviving organisms were stunning in their diversity, abundance, and the mechanisms by which they survived. They persisted as whole organisms living below ground, encased within late-persisting snowbanks, and buried in lake and stream sediments. They survived as rhizomes transported along with the massive landslide that accompanied the eruption and as stems that suffered the abrasion of mud?ows. Mud?ows ?oated nurse logs covered with tree seedlings and then redeposited them on the ?oor of a forested river terrace. Millions, perhaps billions, of plants survived as rootstocks and rhizomes that pushed their way up through the tephra, and others survived on the bases of uprooted trees.
The eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980, had a momentous impact on the fungal, plant, animal, and human life from the mountain to the far reaches of the explosion's ash cloud and mudflows. Although this intense natural event caused loss of substantial life and property, it also created a unique opportunity to examine a huge disturbance of natural systems and their subsequent responses. Based on one of the most studied areas of volcanic activity, this book synthesizes the ecological research that has been conducted for twenty-five years since the eruption.
Research from geology as well as plant and animal ecology has been integrated in this unprecedented look at the complex interactions of biological and physical systems in the response of the volcanic landscape. Lessons from the volcano inform our larger understanding of ecosystem disturbances, natural processes, and the impact of land-use practices. Included are results of significant and long-term research on vegetation, mycorrhizae, plant and animal interactions, arthropods, amphibians, mammals, fish, lakes, nutrient cycling, geomorphology, and environmental management. This comprehensive account will be of value to those interested in natural history, ecology, disturbance, conservation biology, limnology, geoscience, and land management. Questions about what actually happens when a volcano erupts, what the immediate and long-term dangers are, and how life reasserts itself in the environment are discussed in full detail.
Virginia Dale is a Corporate Fellow in the Environmental Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She is also an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee.
Fred Swanson is a Research Geologist at the USDA Forest Service Pacific NW Research Station in Corvallis, OR.
Charles Crisafulli is an Ecologist at the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station in Olympia, WA.
From the reviews:
"On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens in Washington state erupted violently ? . In 20 chapters written by 48 contributors, this book provides an overview of the ecological and geological setting before the 1980 eruption and the geophysical environment created afterward. ? A major contribution to disturbance ecology, this book belongs on every ecologist's bookshelf. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers." (R. L. Smith, CHOICE, November, 2005)
"The eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 was one of the most significant events of recent times. It allowed us to haven an almost unprecedented chance to examine ecological processes ? . This is a fascinating book. It provides one of the very few detailed accounts of change. ? It follows that for those interested in this study, this is a crucial text. Mt. St. Helens makes a superb case study: this text makes the work accessible for those outside the immediate research community." (TENews, August, 2005)
"The eruption of the Mount St. Helens in May 1980 was the most spectacular eruption since that of Krakatau in 1880 ? . Due to the great progress in science, it was possible to organize immediately systematic and very complex research, results of which are comprehensively presented in the book published for 25th anniversary of the eruption. ? The book is relevant not only for ecological theory, but also for practical restoration of disturbed sties. Moreover, one can read the book as a thrilling story." (Karel Prach, Folia Geobotanica, Vol. 41 (4), 2006)
