OPUS: A synthesis of succession trajectories, rates and processes on Mount St. Helens

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

The dramatic eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980 created a complex landscape within which recovering ecosystems could be studied. This Opportunities for Promoting Understanding through Synthesis (OPUS) project will synthesize 31 years of permanent plot data collected since the eruption of Mount St. Helens. This synthesis will focus on basic questions concerning primary succession such as: what factors govern recovery rates, how important are random effects in governing the direction and rate of recovery, do sites with different initial colonists have alternative trajectories of recovery or do they converge to a similar vegetation type? Resolving these questions will directly inform emerging ecological theories about how alternative biological communities may persist and can be applied to planning effective restoration projects. This project will increase our understanding of primary succession, the process by which new surfaces or destroyed ecosystems recover. Both natural disasters and intense human disturbances create barren surfaces. Therefore, the results of this synthetic study of primary succession at Mount St. Helens will have direct relevance for management of other disturbed sites such as those with mine tailings. In addition to the technical analyses, a book intended for a broad audience of non-specialists will be prepared. It will describe the recovery of vegetation on Mount St. Helens and explain how this exquisite system provokes a passion to preserve the natural world.