When Mount St. Helens in Washington erupted in 1980, it created a gradient in disturbance. In the pumice plains near the eruption, the devastation was almost total. The extent of disturbance was much less in the farthest reaches of the blast zone. How might the rate of forest succession be related to intensity of disturbance around Mount St. Helens? Design a study to test your ideas, including a hypothetical map of the blast zone, the location of study sites, a list of the variables you would measure, a timetable for your study (assume you or your successors study the system for as long as you like), and a list of results that would support or contradict your hypothesis.