Puyehue-Cordón Caulle eruption of 2011: tephra fall and initial forest responses in the Chilean Andes

Persistence of epiphytic lichens along a tephra-depth gradient produced by the 2011 Puyehue-Cordón Caulle eruption in Parque Nacional Puyehue, Chile

“…However tephra texture, temperature and chemistry likely play important roles as does tree architecture, which could provide shelter from the brunt of the tephra fall. If the characteristics of the eruption were different, such as laterally projected tephra, more dense lithic ejecta, more fine ash, all of which occurred at Volcán Chaitén south of Puyehue-Cordón Caulle (Swanson et al 2016), then we expected lichens would experience more mortality. Indeed, preliminary results from a parallel study conducted by the authors four years after the 2008 eruption of Volcán Chaitén suggest very different lichen responses from those at Puyehue-Cordón Caulle.…”

“…The forests at 50 cm of tephra depth were composed by a mixture of N. dombeyi and N. pumilio and some D. andina understory. See Swanson et al (2016) for more details on forest structure on the plots.…”

“…See Swanson et al (2016) for description of sampling area, situated on the border between Chile and Argentina southeast of Volcán Puyehue along Ruta 215 in an area between Chilean and Argentinean customs stations.…”

“…At each tephra depth station, two circular plots 34.7 m in radius were positioned at both ends of a 100 m transect used by Swanson et al (2016). On each plot, two methods were used to measure the lichen community; 1) we estimated the abundance of each macrolichen species on all substrates by searching the entire plot and; 2) measured the abundance of lichens through time (without identifying lichen species) using repeated photography of 0.2 m 2 quadrats installed on selected tree boles.…”

Understorey succession after burial by tephra from Mount St. Helens

“…Accordingly, tephra deposition has diverse effects on plant succession (Crisafulli, Swanson, Halvorson, & Clarkson, ; Zobel & Antos, ) depending on depth of burial, abrasion, toxic (negative) and nutritive (beneficial) chemistry, season of deposition, presence of snowpack, ambient rainfall and preexisting community structure and composition ( Allen & Huntley, ; Ayris & Delmelle, ; Zobel & Antos, ). Functional plant traits, including phenology, leaf characteristics (deciduous or evergreen), location of perennating organs, adventitious rooting, presence of vegetative spread (stoloniferous, rhizomatous, or none), geometry of meristematic growth, effectiveness of sexual reproduction, and growth rate, all contribute to the nature of plant and ecosystem response to disturbance and subsequent successional trajectories (Adams, Dale, Smith, & Kruckeberg, ; Antos & Zobel, ; Halpern, ; Swanson, Jones, Crisafulli, González, & Lara, ; Zobel & Antos, ). Taken together, initial conditions and community type can strongly influence ecosystem resilience and resistance to disturbance by tephra‐fall (Zobel & Antos, ).…”