General Ecology
Specific Ecosystems
Succession
Succession is the change in a community over time, this occurs most often after a natural disaster such as flood, fire, or volcanic eruption or after manmade influence such as the clearing of a forest or abandonment of an agricultural field. An example of succession is when a pond or lake is formed, life begins to take hold in the shallow parts of the lake, as soil and sediment washed into the lake and the aquatic pioneer plants begin to die, plants which float on the waters surface such as lilies begin to grow and shade out the underwater aquatic plants, soon after a marsh forms and marsh plants such as cattails take hold. Theses marsh plants remove the water from the soil and trees begin to grow forming a forest where there once was a lake.
Most of the time succession does not occur in a set series of smooth transitions from one stage to another, it is more likely that towards the later stages of succession that small gaps will form in the community which creates a place for species of plants and animals which had previously occurred in the community to reappear, these gaps allow for species diversity in an ecosystem. It has been found that areas, which undergo more change, have a wider variety of species, so an old growth forest which has gone unchanged for centuries will have far fewer species than the seashore which is constantly undergoing change.
The rate of succession is gauged by an ideal concept called a climax community, where all of the plants and animals are self perpetuating in reality a climax community can never exist because climates change and natural disasters destroy or alter the landscape in which a community is living.
Not only can the landscape be changed by natural phenomenon but humans can also exert an enormous influence over a community. In response to the need to better understand, succession and how communities of plants and animals reestablish them selves the science of restoration ecology was created, in the hopes that we will be able to sustain and reverse the harm which has already been done to the communities of natural things around us.
