What is succession in biology

At first, the plants include grasses and other species that can grow in thin, poor soil. As more plants grow and die, organic matter is added to the soil.

This improves the soil and helps it hold water. The improved soil allows shrubs and trees to move into the area. Primary Succession. New land from a volcanic eruption is slowly being colonized by a pioneer species.

Secondary succession occurs in a formerly inhabited area that was disturbed. The disturbance could be a fire, flood, or human action such as farming. This type of succession is faster because the soil is already in place. In this case, the pioneer species are plants such as grasses, birch trees, and fireweed.

Organic matter from the pioneer species improves the soil. This lets other plants move into the area. Plant reestablishment 15 years after the debris avalanche at Mount St. Figure 4: Succession after glacier retreat. Figure 5: Keever's observed pattern of succession in North Carolina agricultural old fields. Recent Research on Succession. Recently, ecologists have been developing mathematical models to better characterize and predict successional changes.

For example, The Resource Ratio Hypothesis, proposed by David Tilman , models successional shifts in plant communities based on the assumption that succession is driven by a tradeoff in competition for nutrients in early succession, and for light in late succession. Other researchers, such as Henry Horn have used transition matrix models and Markovian models to measure rates of succession and predict the outcomes of succession.

Figure 6: Plant diversity increases throughout succession. Fields were last plowed in While the process of succession has been studied by ecologists since the turn of the 20th century, it is still very much a dynamic field of study today. Multiple, complex mechanisms can all interact to result in predictable patterns of change in communities over time. Recently, ecologists have used principles of succession to inform the applied ecological fields of Restoration Ecology and Invasion Biology.

References and Recommended Reading Bazzaz, F. Odum, E. The Strategy of Ecosystem Development. Science , Reiners, W. Plant diversity in a chronosequence at Glacier Bay, Alaska. Ecology 52, Article History Close.

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A previous ecosystem is superseded by the arrival of a newer ecosystem. This is known as ecosystem succession. Learn more about it here Read More. Learn about community patterns and the ecological factors influencing these patterns.

Revisit some of the ecosystems you've learned about earlier to learn more about the possible impacts of natural and human-induced environmental changes Terrestrial Plant Ecology. Menlo Park, California. Glenn-Lewin, D.

Peet, and T. Veblen Plant Succession: Theory and Prediction. Chapman and Hall, London. Vegetation dynamics succession and climax in relation to plant community management. Examples of Succession Succession occurs in all sorts of vegetation. Additional Sources of Information on Succession Here are some general sources on succession that provide a good introduction to the topic.

Directing ecological succession.