Recovery of lakes in the 1980 blast zone of Mount St. Helens

Journal Article · Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 EST 1990 · Northwest Science; (United States)

OSTI ID:5379782

Wissmar, R C ^[1]

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1. Washington Univ., Seattle (United States)

Over the past 10 years, following the catastrophic 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, considerable research has been conducted on altered and newly created lake ecosystems in different depositional regions of the blast zone. Impact and recovery characteristics have been followed for the altered Spirit Lake and two newly created lakes S. F. Castle and Coldwater Lakes. During the 1980 eruption, Spirit Lake was directly impacted by debris avalanches and pyroclastic flows. The unique characteristics of the Mount St. Helens volcanic eruption and geochemistry, such as low inputs of sulfate and high loadings of organics from devastated forests to lakes, combined to form chemical environments favorable to biological activity. Even though weathering, organic and microbial reactions were evidently the important processes regulating alkalinity of these lakes, patterns of changes in pH, total alkalinity, and dissolved organic carbon and changes in microbial assemblages and processes also suggested a sequence of biological reactions that occurred during the early recovery period of 1980 and 1981. The biological recovery of the lakes via succession of microbial reactions suggests a tendency for the higher energy producing reactions to dominate lesser energy producing reactions. As turbid and high suspended particulate matter levels decreased, phytoplankton primary production increased to produce mixed bacteria-phytoplankton-zooplankton communities.

• OSTI ID: 5379782
• Journal Information: Northwest Science; (United States), Vol. 64:5; ISSN 0029-344X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
LAKES
BIOGEOCHEMISTRY
MT ST HELENS
ERUPTION
VOLCANIC GASES
DEPOSITION
WASHINGTON
WATER POLLUTION
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
LIMNOLOGY
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PH VALUE
SULFATES
WEATHERING
CASCADE MOUNTAINS
CHEMISTRY
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
ECOSYSTEMS
FEDERAL REGION X
FLUIDS
GASES
GEOCHEMISTRY
MOUNTAINS
NORTH AMERICA
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SURFACE WATERS
USA
540320* - Environment
Aquatic- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)