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SUCCESSION
Changes in the environment
Disturbances:
Events that change a community
Can alter resources
Can destroy or remove organisms
Stability:
The ability of a community to resist
disturbances
The greater the biodiversity, the
greater the stability
Ecological Succession:
Gradual sequential changes of a
community
Can be primary or secondary
Primary Succession:
The start of a community in a place
where there was no life
Examples: a new island forms or a
volcanic eruption covers a community
with lava
Pioneer species are the first
organisms to live in a new area
Pioneer species are
small, hardy, and grow
quickly
Primary succession is
a very slow process!
Secondary Succession:
Occurs after a disturbance, either
natural or man-made
In secondary succession, soil
remains and some species are
able to survive.
This type of
succession
is much
faster. It
may only
take 100
years in
some cases.
Climax Communities:
The stable endpoint of succession
There is very little change