The severity of disturbance ranged from areas where all life perished to zones with nearly complete survival. Dr. Dale was among the first ecologists to enter the Red Zone after the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Although these hot spots, or “oasis” habitats compose less than 1 percent of the total landscape, they contribute much of the total biodiversity. Ecologist Charlie Crisafulli, then an undergraduate student, landed by helicopter on Mount St. Helens' barren landscape just weeks after the catastrophic eruption to begin assessing disturbance effects and to help develop a research strategy to study initial and long-term ecological responses. Dale, Virginia H.; Swanson, Frederick J.; Crisafulli, Charles M., 2005. Pages 215–221 in S. A. C. Keller, editor. St. Helens is the most active volcano within the Cascade Range and has the highest probability out of all U.S. volcanoes other than Hawaii and Alaska to erupt … Research into the ecological responses to Mount St. Helens' 1980 eruption has fundamentally transformed not only understanding of volcanoes, but our ability to live alongside them. You must have JavaScript enabled to use this form. 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. New Year's Day 2. Eric Wagner writes that after the blast the mountain was 1,314 feet shorter, replacing the symmetrical summit of America’s Mount Fuji with a crater a mile wide and two thousand feet deep. For ecologists, St. Helens represented a unique opportunity, says Virginia Dale, an ecologist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. And Richard “Dick” Mack gathered a group of graduate students to help collect it. The 1980 eruption of Mt. These events interacted with a diverse landscape to create a complex mosaic of disturbance zones covering several hundred square miles. The story of how nature reestablished itself after the blast is far from over. In addition, what scientists have learned from their studies of Mount St. Helens' mechanisms of volcanic disturbance is being applied to other natural disturbances including fire, floods, and wind events--in the Northwest and beyond. Mechanisms of early primary succession in subalpine habitats on Mount St. Helens. Dr. John Bishop Professor of Biological Sciences. Plant succession on the Mount St. Helens debris-avalanche deposit. Biological legacies accelerated recovery at Mount St. HelensLiving and dead organisms left after the eruption, termed “biological legacies,” accelerated recovery at Mount St. Helens. [CDATA[/* >