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After the blast : the ecological recovery of Mount St. Helens / Eric Wagner.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Seattle : University of Washington Press, 2020Copyright date: ©2020Edition: First editionDescription: 239 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color), color map ; 24 cmISBN:
  • 0295746939
  • 9780295746937
Subject(s): LOC classification:
  • QE523.S23 W34 2020
Contents:
Prologue: After -- More than the boom. Paper 1250 ; A portal to other ways of knowing -- Natural experiments. Biological legacies ; The survivor-hero ; To recover or not to recover ; Lines of succession ; The concrete forest -- Of logs and lakes. A black stew of bacteria ; The tunnel ; The log mat ; Fish in a fishless lake -- Changes to the land. Disturbed ecologies ; Fish in a fishless river ; The elk in the cardboard box -- Epilogue: Volcán Calbuco. -- Contents page
Summary: "How life bounces back from epic destruction On May 18, 1980, people all over the world watched with awe and horror as Mount St. Helens erupted in southwestern Washington. Fifty-seven people were killed, and hundreds of square miles of what had been lush forests and wild rivers were to all appearances destroyed. While most people thought of the eruption as a catastrophe, a small, ragtag team of ecologists did not. For them, the eruption of Mount St. Helens was the opportunity of a lifetime. Here was an unprecedented chance to test some of ecology's oldest and most august theories about how plants and animals recover from a massive disturbance. Ecologists thought they would have to wait years, or even decades, for life to return to the mountain. But when a forest scientist named Jerry Franklin helicoptered into the blast area a couple of weeks after the eruption, he found small plants bursting through the ash and animals skittering over the ground. Stunned, he realized he and his colleagues had been thinking of the volcano in completely the wrong way. Rather than being a dead zone, the mountain was very much alive. Mount St. Helens has been surprising ecologists ever since, and in After the Blast, Eric Wagner takes readers on a fascinating journey through the blast area and beyond. From fireweed to elk, the plants and animals Franklin saw would not just change how ecologists approached the eruption and its landscape, but also prompt them to think in new ways about how life responds in the face of seeming total devastation"--Summary: May 18, 1980. People all over the world watched with awe and horror as Mount St. Helens erupted in southwestern Washington. Fifty-seven people were killed, and hundreds of square miles of what had been lush forests and wild rivers were to all appearances destroyed. For ecologists, this was an unprecedented chance to test some of ecology's oldest and most august theories about how plants and animals recover from a massive disturbance. When forest scientist Jerry Franklin helicoptered into the blast area a couple of weeks after the eruption, he found small plants bursting through the ash and animals skittering over the ground. Rather than being a dead zone, the mountain was very much alive. Wagner takes readers on a fascinating journey through the blast area and beyond.
List(s) this item appears in: Northwest Ecosystems
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Lending Books Elisabeth C. Miller Library Pacific Northwest Connections Collection QH541.5.M65 W24 2020 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Checked out 06/10/2024 39352800181265
Total holds: 0

"A Ruth Kirk book"

Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-231) and index.

Prologue: After -- More than the boom. Paper 1250 ; A portal to other ways of knowing -- Natural experiments. Biological legacies ; The survivor-hero ; To recover or not to recover ; Lines of succession ; The concrete forest -- Of logs and lakes. A black stew of bacteria ; The tunnel ; The log mat ; Fish in a fishless lake -- Changes to the land. Disturbed ecologies ; Fish in a fishless river ; The elk in the cardboard box -- Epilogue: Volcán Calbuco. -- Contents page

"How life bounces back from epic destruction On May 18, 1980, people all over the world watched with awe and horror as Mount St. Helens erupted in southwestern Washington. Fifty-seven people were killed, and hundreds of square miles of what had been lush forests and wild rivers were to all appearances destroyed. While most people thought of the eruption as a catastrophe, a small, ragtag team of ecologists did not. For them, the eruption of Mount St. Helens was the opportunity of a lifetime. Here was an unprecedented chance to test some of ecology's oldest and most august theories about how plants and animals recover from a massive disturbance. Ecologists thought they would have to wait years, or even decades, for life to return to the mountain. But when a forest scientist named Jerry Franklin helicoptered into the blast area a couple of weeks after the eruption, he found small plants bursting through the ash and animals skittering over the ground. Stunned, he realized he and his colleagues had been thinking of the volcano in completely the wrong way. Rather than being a dead zone, the mountain was very much alive. Mount St. Helens has been surprising ecologists ever since, and in After the Blast, Eric Wagner takes readers on a fascinating journey through the blast area and beyond. From fireweed to elk, the plants and animals Franklin saw would not just change how ecologists approached the eruption and its landscape, but also prompt them to think in new ways about how life responds in the face of seeming total devastation"--

May 18, 1980. People all over the world watched with awe and horror as Mount St. Helens erupted in southwestern Washington. Fifty-seven people were killed, and hundreds of square miles of what had been lush forests and wild rivers were to all appearances destroyed. For ecologists, this was an unprecedented chance to test some of ecology's oldest and most august theories about how plants and animals recover from a massive disturbance. When forest scientist Jerry Franklin helicoptered into the blast area a couple of weeks after the eruption, he found small plants bursting through the ash and animals skittering over the ground. Rather than being a dead zone, the mountain was very much alive. Wagner takes readers on a fascinating journey through the blast area and beyond.

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