The northern pocket gopher (Thomomys talpoides) brings unexpected benefits to ecosystems
All Canadian photos/Alay
Two years after the eruption of Mount St Helens in 1980, a team of researchers went in a helicopter to gopher the ash-covered landscape. Decades later, the activity of that single burrowing gopher in a single day helped increase the diversity of soil fungi, helping the decimated ecosystem grow.
“There’s something to be said about learning the lessons of gophers,” he says Mia Maltz at the University of Connecticut, which he used the rash To understand how forests can recover from other stresses, fires and…
