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Forest Understory Buried by Volcanic Tephra: Inertia, Resilience, and the Pattern of Community Redevelopment

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Ecological Responses at Mount St. Helens: Revisited 35 years after the 1980 Eruption

Abstract

We studied the effects of tephra deposits on understory plants in old-growth conifer forests NE of Mount St. Helens, including initial damage and the subsequent 30 years of vegetation redevelopment. The amount of damage to plants increased and the degree of recovery declined as plant size decreased, as tephra depth increased, and where tephra fell on snow. Major herb species were affected strongly by tephra depth, whereas damage to shrubs resulted primarily where tephra fell on snow. Cover in 2010 remained significantly correlated with the amount of damage, evidence of the long-term effects of tephra disturbance.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, 2082 Cordley Hall, Corvallis, OR, 97331-2902, USA

    Donald B. Zobel

  2. Department of Biology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, V8W 3N5, Canada

    Joseph A. Antos

Authors
  1. Donald B. Zobel
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  2. Joseph A. Antos
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Donald B. Zobel .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, Amboy, Washington, USA

    Charles M. Crisafulli

  2. Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

    Virginia H. Dale

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Zobel, D.B., Antos, J.A. (2018). Forest Understory Buried by Volcanic Tephra: Inertia, Resilience, and the Pattern of Community Redevelopment. In: Crisafulli, C., Dale, V. (eds) Ecological Responses at Mount St. Helens: Revisited 35 years after the 1980 Eruption. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7451-1_6

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