Collaborative Research: LTREB Renewal: RUI: Impacts of insect herbivory on the pace and pattern of primary successional change at Mount St. Helens

这一长期项目检验的假设，昆虫植食性是一个主要因素影响自然群落的恢复后，灾难性的干扰，一个过程被称为初级演替。自1980年圣海伦火山爆发以来，已利用实地调查和实验来量化食草动物对两个关键社区成员的影响-羽扇豆，促进土壤发育，柳树，提供了许多动物所需的三维植被结构的主要来源。在接下来的五年里，这些方法将继续，以确定草食动物对宿主植物的影响是如何与社区发展联系在一起的，如果这些影响随着社区变得更加复杂而减弱，以及导致草食动物影响的因素在空间上各不相同。这项研究的结果揭示了以前未被认识到的影响自然群落从火山爆发等灾难性干扰中恢复的机制。该项目提供了管理和恢复工作所必需的长期数据。 该项目还通过学生的参与以及与国家火山纪念碑及其非营利合作伙伴圣海伦火山研究所的合作，加强科学教育。研究人员将协助圣海伦斯山研究所开发资源，使高中科学班能够参与现场的研究。

This long-term project tests the hypothesis that insect herbivory is a major factor influencing recovery of natural communities following catastrophic disturbance, a process known as primary succession. Since Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, field surveys and experiments have been used to quantify the impacts of herbivores on two key community members - lupins, which facilitate soil development, and willows, which provide the main source of three dimensional vegetation structure required by many animals. Over the next five years, these approaches will be continued in order to determine how effects of herbivores on host plants are linked to community development, if these effects attenuate as communities become more complex, and the factors that cause herbivore effects to vary across space. Results from this study have revealed previously unrecognized mechanisms that influence the recovery of natural communities from catastrophic disturbances such as volcanic eruptions. The project provides long-term data essential to management and restoration efforts. The project also enhances science education through student involvement and work with the National Volcanic Monument and its non-profit partner, the Mount St. Helens Institute. The researchers will assist the Mount St. Helens Institute in developing resources that enable high school science classes to participate in research at the site.