The northern pocket gopher (Thomomys talpoides) brings
unexpected ecosystem benefits
Image courtesy of All Canada Photos/Alamy.
Joel Kontinen
In 1980, the
volcano mount St Helens erupted, which was a catastrophe, It also was a
testimony to the effects of Noah’s Flood, as it showed that sediments could grow up fast.
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.
Source:
James Dinneen 2024 How a single gopher restored a landscape devastated by a volcano | New Scientist11 November.