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

这个长期项目测试了这样一个假设，即昆虫食草性是影响灾难性干扰后自然群落恢复的主要因素，这一过程被称为初级演替。自1980年圣海伦斯火山喷发以来，人们通过实地调查和实验来量化草食动物对两个关键群落成员的影响--促进土壤发展的羽扇豆类和提供许多动物所需三维植被结构的主要来源的柳树。在接下来的五年里，将继续采用这些方法，以确定食草动物对寄主植物的影响如何与社区发展联系起来，如果这些影响随着社区变得更加复杂而减弱，以及导致食草动物影响的因素在空间上是不同的。这项研究的结果揭示了以前不为人知的影响自然社区从火山喷发等灾难性干扰中恢复的机制。该项目提供了对管理和恢复工作至关重要的长期数据。该项目还通过学生参与和与国家火山纪念碑及其非营利性伙伴圣海伦斯研究所的合作来加强科学教育。研究人员将协助圣海伦斯山研究所开发资源，使高中科学课堂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.