May

7

Mount St Helens

The post-eruption lake followed a pattern Crisafulli would see many times in the blast zone. New organisms colonize the virgin environment with dramatic success, only to burn themselves out or be checked by predators, parasites, or competitors. This was the second revelation of St. Helens: When there's a blank slate, ecological succession is a cycle of boom and bust.

from "Mountain Transformed: Thirty years after the blast, Mount St. Helens is reborn again" by McKenzie Funk (a highly recommended article and pictures with beautiful descriptions of biological and biochemical events in nearby Spirit Lake)

Chair has mentioned the multitude of lessons to be learned from nature as they relate to markets. Surtsey and Mount St. Helens (there's a bag of ash around here somewhere from when I was a true geologist) came to mind during the previous market upsets and may be useful examples to reflect upon while the current unpleasantness runs its course.

So in that regard, nature in recent decades has provided two wonderful laboratories in which to observe, research, and quantify the many changes that occur over time due to the processes associated with ecological succession — the two areas being Mount St. Helens in the Pacific Northwest and the Icelandic, volcanic island of Surtsey. Understanding primary succession and secondary succession, the two types of ecological succession, is important for determining how nature best responds to destructive events–either man-made or natural. This knowledge is important to mankind's attempts to save and restore habitat.

Surtsey arose from the Mid-Ocean ridge in the Atlantic Ocean between 1963 and 1967 as a natural tabula rasa of molten basalt. It had to cool first before nature could exploit its many newly-formed and vacant niches. It was a chance for biologists to see primary succession in action in the North Atlantic. The news reports and black and white videos taken of the new, erupting island were shown over and over during the Saturday morning TV cartoon times and were fascinating to scientifically-inclined youngsters at the time. Volcanoes and dinosaurs–it doesn't get any better.

Primary succession on Surtesy has patiently proceeded with time — diatoms on the sandy beaches and flying insects in 1964, the first sea rocket plant in 1965, then other terrestrial plants borne by the wind or dropped as seeds by marine birds, seals in 1983. Dense seagull populations in 1986 expedited the spread and varieties of plants. The first earthworm was seen in 1993, 26 years after cessation of volcanic activity. An upward steady drift towards higher forms of multicellular life.

The infant Island of surtseyDr. Roger del Moral at the University of Washington, has noted many similarities between natural processes that occurred after Surtsey formed and after the violent Mount St. Helens 1980 eruption. Dr. del Moral notes, "Primary succession requires colonization, establishment, development and biotic interactions." Another key factor is facilitation: "Without facilitation, both Surtsey and Mount St. Helens would have scarcely developed. Seabirds deposit nutrients in and around their colonies. Wind carries in organic matter to Mount St. Helens and now birds and large mammals contribute nutrients. However, winds reaching Surtsey carry much lower nutrient loads and Surtsey also lacks vascular plants that can fix nitrogen. On Mount St. Helens, two Lupinus species and Alnus contribute to improving fertility. Both volcanoes demonstrate the importance of soil fertility to the rate of succession."

Dr. del Moral has written extensively on Mount St. Helens research findings and he has applied statistics to try to better understand primary succession, particularly with respect to plants. He writes that, "Primary succession is controlled by a combination of landscape and habitat factors whose actions may be stochastic or deterministic."

On predicting development over time: "The sequential development of different plant communities after severe disturbances remains an intriguing mystery, despite a century of examination. How communities assemble is so complex that there is little agreement on even general patterns, although carbon certainly accumulates and community structure becomes more complex." del Moral on destructive volcanic activities: "The effects of pyroclastic events and air-borne tephra depend on intensity, scale, and the impacted biota. Forests are more resilient after tephra events than are shrub or grassland vegetation since trees often survive impacts that kill other growth-forms. Forests are also resilient to pyroclastic events since growth form diversity enhances the possibility that some individuals survive."

Here's hoping we are all trees during the current market disruptions and succeed like success moving forward.


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