[Rockhounds] How gophers brought Mount St. Helens back to life in one day

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, lava incinerated anything living for
miles around. As an experiment, scientists later dropped gophers onto parts
of the scorched mountain for only 24 hours. The benefits from that single
day were undeniable—and still visible 40 years later.

Once the blistering blast of ash and debris cooled, scientists theorized
that, by digging up beneficial bacteria and fungi, gophers might be able to
help regenerate lost plant and animal life on the mountain. Two years after
the eruption, they tested this theory.

"They're often considered pests, but we thought they would take old soil,
move it to the surface, and that would be where recovery would occur," said
UC Riverside microbiologist Michael Allen.

They were right. But the scientists did not expect the benefits of this
experiment would still be visible in the soil today, in 2024. A paper
published
<https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frmbi.2024.1399416/full> in
the journal *Frontiers in Microbiomes* details an enduring change in the
communities of fungi and bacteria where gophers had been, versus nearby
land where they were never introduced.

"In the 1980s, we were just testing the short-term reaction," said Allen.
"Who would have predicted you could toss a gopher in for a day and see a
residual effect 40 years later?"
https://phys.org/news/2024-11-gophers-brought-mount-st-helens.html