Making sense of Mount St. Helens

Abstract

The eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 resulted in "a grand experiment that you could never have gotten anybody to fund," says Forest Service ecologist Charles Crisafulli. "Everything's new. It's a new landform." Unlike most misbehaving volcanoes, this one provided an accessible laboratory right along the Interstate-5 corridor, with the research infrastructure of major universities nearby. Ecological responses to the Mount St. Helens eruptipn have surprised ecologists in the diversity and vigor of plant and animal community development, and the landscape continues to change.

Citation

Nash, Steve. 2010. Making sense of Mount St. Helens. BioScience. 60(8): 571-575.