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Lichen Community Development Along a Volcanic Disturbance Gradient at Mount St. Helens

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Ecological Responses at Mount St. Helens: Revisited 35 years after the 1980 Eruption

Abstract

Lichens are symbiotic composite organisms made of a fungus (ascomycete or rarely basidiomycete), plus an alga or a cyanobacterium, or occasionally all three. They can be important components of post-eruption vegetation recovery because of their ability to fix nitrogen, which is absent or at low levels in new volcanic deposits. Patterns of macrolichen species richness, abundance, and community composition are described and interpreted for different volcanic disturbances created by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens and compared to nearby control areas not affected by the eruption. We found variable responses of different groups of lichens to a variety of volcanic disturbances produced by a single eruption.

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Acknowledgments

This work was the outcome of a foray convened by the Northwest Lichenologist Guild and hosted by the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, and the Mount St. Helens Institute. Support for CMC was provided by the US Forest Service-Pacific Northwest Research Station and the US National Science Foundation LTREB Program (DEB-0614538).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, 2082 Cordley Hall, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA

    Peter R. Nelson & Bruce McCune

  2. Arts and Sciences Division, University of Maine-Fort Kent, 23 University Drive, Fort Kent, ME, 04743, USA

    Peter R. Nelson

  3. 6606 Jocko Canyon Road, Arlee, 59821, MT, USA

    Tim Wheeler

  4. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region, Air Resources Management Program, Corvallis, 97331, OR, USA

    Linda H. Geiser

  5. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Water Fish Wildlife and Rare Plants, Sidney R. Yates Federal Building, 201 14th Street, SW Suite 3SC, Mailstop 1121, Washington, DC, 20250, USA

    Linda H. Geiser

  6. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, 42218 NE Yale Bridge Rd, Amboy, WA, 98601, USA

    Charles M. Crisafulli

Authors
  1. Peter R. Nelson
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  2. Bruce McCune
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  3. Tim Wheeler
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  4. Linda H. Geiser
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  5. Charles M. Crisafulli
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peter R. Nelson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, Amboy, Washington, USA

    Charles M. Crisafulli

  2. Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

    Virginia H. Dale

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Nelson, P.R., McCune, B., Wheeler, T., Geiser, L.H., Crisafulli, C.M. (2018). Lichen Community Development Along a Volcanic Disturbance Gradient at Mount St. Helens. In: Crisafulli, C., Dale, V. (eds) Ecological Responses at Mount St. Helens: Revisited 35 years after the 1980 Eruption. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7451-1_10

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