How a single gopher restored a landscape devastated by a volcano

November 12, 2024 by admin

Life

Never underestimate what a single gopher can achieve in a day: one of the burrowing mammals helped boost soil fungi in an area blanketed by ash from the explosive eruption of Mount St Helens in Washington state

By James Dinneen

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The northern pocket gopher (Thomomys talpoides) brings unexpected ecosystem benefits

All Canada Photos/Alamy

Two years after Mount St Helens erupted in 1980, a team of researchers helicoptered in a gopher to the ash-covered landscape. Decades later, the activity of that single gopher burrowing for a single day may have helped the decimated ecosystem regrow by boosting the diversity of soil fungi.

“There’s something to be said about learning lessons from the gophers,” says Mia Maltz at the University of Connecticut, who has used the eruption to understand how forests might recover from other stresses – including wildfires and…

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