Principal Investigators:

The importance of natural disturbances in shaping landscapes and influencing ecosystems is now well recognized in ecology. Understanding of relatively small disturbances has increased rapidly, but large infrequent disturbances--such as volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, big fires, tornadoes, and floods--have not been well studied.

Whether very large disturbances are qualitatively different from numerous small disturbance remains an unresolved issue in ecology, in part because of a paucity long-term data on the effects of large-scale disturbances.... more

The importance of natural disturbances in shaping landscapes and influencing ecosystems is now well recognized in ecology. Understanding of relatively small disturbances has increased rapidly, but large infrequent disturbances--such as volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, big fires, tornadoes, and floods--have not been well studied.

Whether very large disturbances are qualitatively different from numerous small disturbance remains an unresolved issue in ecology, in part because of a paucity long-term data on the effects of large-scale disturbances. Within the past two decades, several very large natural disturbances--such as the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, the Yellowstone fires of 1988, Hurricane Hugo in 1989, the floods in the midwest in 1993--have received considerable post-disturbance ecological research.

We propose a 2.5-day workshop to evaluate whether general conclusions about the ecological effects of large-scale disturbance are suggested.

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