How a single gopher restored a landscape devastated by a volcano

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How a single gopher restored a landscape devastated by a volcano

The northern pocket gopher (Thomomys talpoides) brings unexpected ecosystem benefits

All Canada Photos/Alamy

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

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at the University of Connecticut, who has used the eruption to understand how forests might recover from other stresses – including wildfires and…

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