Faculty Advisor
Dr Angela Strecker
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Summer 2023
Keywords
Internship
Abstract
In the summer of 2023, I assisted Kathryn “Katey” Queen, a M.S. candidate in Environmental Science at Western Washington University. Dr. Angela Strecker advises Katey’s aquatic ecological research master’s thesis. This thesis work focuses on the successional development of ponds and surrounding habitats that formed following the 1980 volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens. The eruption had varied impacts on the surrounding area; closest to the crater where trees were entirely removed, to more distant locations where the force leveled trees, to the outer edges of the blast area where the force was not powerful enough to knock trees down but heat impacted the foliage resulting in a standing dead forest (Dale et al. 2005). The debris-avalanche flow of volcanic rock created troughs or hummocks where ponds formed in a landscape initially devoid of life 43 years ago, providing a rare living laboratory to study a naturally disturbed early-successional ecosystem in the Cascade Mountains (Figure 1).
Recommended Citation
Samuelson, Savannah, "Institute for Watershed Studies Research Assistant" (2023). College of the Environment Internship Reports. 205.
https://cedar.wwu.edu/cenv_internship/205
Type
Text
Rights
Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.
Language
English
Format
application/pdf