Ecological Succession

• Ecological Succession is the

process of gradual and predictable
change in the species structure of
an ecological community over a
period of time.
• Ecological Succession is a dynamic
and continuous process that
shapes and determine the
structure and function of
ecosystems.
• The process of succession occurs
either after the initial colonization of a
newly created habitat, or after a
disturbance substantially alters a pre-
existing habitat.
• Succession takes place when
communities replace one another
due to natural or man-made
destructions.
• A community starts with a relatively
few pioneering animals and plants
and develops through increasing
complexity until it becomes stable or
self-perpetuating as a climax
community.
Examples of succession
• Terrestrial: Bare rocks – Lichens --
Annual Plants -- Perennial Plants and
Grasses – Shrubs – Softwood Tress,
Pines – Hardwood trees
Ecological Succession: Basic
Terminologies
Pioneer Species
• Pioneer Species refer to hardy species
that are the first to colonise previously
biodiverse steady-state ecosystems.
• For Example: in clear water – algae,
mosses, freshwater eel grass, etc; in
mountains, lichens are a good example
of pioneer species.
• Pioneer Species show a high rate of
growth but a short lifespan.
Sere
• The entire sequence of communities,
Seral Stage
• Each transitional community that is
formed and succeeded or replaced
during a succession is called a seral
stage or a seral community.
Climax Community
• The process of replacing one
community over another is continued
until a stable or self-perpetuating
community develops which is in near
equilibrium with its environment.
• This stable community is referred to as
a Climax Community.
• Thus, the climax community can be
defined as the final stage of a
Xerosere
• Succession that occurs on land where
moisture content is low, such as on bare
rock, is known as Xerosere.
Hydrosere
• Succession that takes place in a water
body, like a pond or lake is called
Hydrosere.
Lithosere: This type of ecological
succession develops on exposed rock
surfaces.
Psammosere: This type of ecological
succession starts on the sand.
Halosere: The plant succession that starts
on salty soil and saline water.
Characteristics of Ecological Succession
• An Ecological Succession has the
following general characteristics:
 The changes in a succession are
unidirectional.
 The nutrient cycle in the succession
will become complex and rapid in the
climax stage.
 Genetical and the species diversity of
the climax community will be highly
diverse.
 Over time food web become more
complex.
 Over time niche differentiation and
 It results from the disparity in the
physical atmosphere of the community.
 It is a systematic procedure of
community development.
 It involves variations in species
structure and it increases the diversity
of species.
 Nutrient variation regulates the
settlement of new communities.
 Succession operates in a stabilized
ecosystem.
Causes of Ecological Succession
• Some important causes may be defined as below:
• Climatic Causes: These can be rainfall, temperature
variations, humidity, gas composition, etc.
• Biotic Causes: The organisms in a community compete to
thrive for existence. Some of them are lost in the process
while some new ones are incorporated.
• External Causes: Soil conditions are affected by the process
of migration, invasion, and competition amongst various
species.
Process (Stages) of Ecological
Succession
• The process of ecological succession involves five stages,
which are:
Nudation
• This is the development of a vacant area with no life. It can be
caused by events like volcanic eruptions, landslides, floods,
erosion, earthquakes, forest fires, or the spread of disease.
Invasion or Intrusion
• This stage involves the establishment of species in a barren
area. The seeds or spores of various species arrive in the new
or exposed area through air, water, etc., a process called
migration. These species then adapt to the conditions, known
as ecesis, and multiply, which is called aggregation.
Competition and coaction
• As species increase in number, they compete with each other
for food, space and other resources. This competition can be
within the same species (intraspecific) or between different
species (interspecific), along with interactions with the
environment. New species of plants and animals continue to
invade.
Reaction
• In this phase, living organisms alter the environment through
their activities, which is called reaction..
Stabilization
• This final stage occurs when the ecosystem becomes stable
and balanced for a longer period, resulting in a climax
community that is well adapted to the specific environment.
Types of ecological succession
• Ecological succession is the process of change in the species
that make up an ecological community over time
• Ecological succession is the systematic and predictable
process by which species composition in an ecosystem
changes over time, progressing from initial colonization to a
mature and stable community.
• Ecological succession is a fundamental concept in ecology,
describing the progressive sequence of changes in species
composition within an ecosystem over time.
• Different types of ecological succession can be observed
based on various factors and triggers.
• Ecological Succession mainly divided into two basic types.
They are :
 Primary Succession
 Secondary Succession
 Types of succession

Primary Secondary
succession Succession
Primary succession
• Succession that begins in new habitats, uninfluenced by
pre-existing communities is called primary succession
• Primary succession takes place over a region where no
community existed previously.
• It occurs in areas that are essentially lifeless, and where
soil is incapable of sustaining life as a result of factors
such as newly formed sand dunes, lava flows or rocks
left from a retreating glacier.
• The first species which develops on this bare land,
called the pioneer community, has high growth rate but
short life span.
• Primary succession is a gradual process of change by
which a barren area is transformed into a thriving
ecosystem.
• This types of ecological succession starts in places with
no plants or animals, like bare land or new volcanic
rocks.
• Over time, microorganisms break down these rocks and
create soil in a process called soil erosion.
• Then, plants start to grow in the soil. It takes several
hundred to 1,000 years for a full community of plants
and animals to develop, depending on the area and
climate.
• These plants support different animals, and the
ecosystem evolves from simple to more complex.
• If the ecosystem is disturbed, like by a fire or human
activity, secondary succession begins.
Primary succession
Secondary succession
• Succession that follows disruption of a pre-existing
community is called secondary succession.
• Secondary succession occurs in areas where a community,
that existed previously, has been removed, disturbed or
destroyed by reasons including natural factors like a forest
fire and volcanic eruption or human interventions like tilling or
harvesting lands.
• Here, the succession is much faster compared to the primary
succession as the soil is already rich with required nutrients,
seeds and other dormant stages of organisms.
• Secondary ecological succession occurs in areas where an
existing ecosystem has been disturbed, but not completely
destroyed. Examples of disturbances include forest fires,
floods, landslides, or human activities like farming or logging.
Unlike primary succession, secondary succession starts with
some remaining and left over fertile soil and organisms
(seeds, spores, etc.) from the previous community. This allows
for faster recolonization by plants and animals.
Process of Recolonization
• Depending on the extent of the disturbance, some species
may survive, and other species may be recolonized from
nearby habitats
• The process of recolonization in secondary ecological
succession involves:
 Following the disturbance, small, fast-growing plants like
weeds and grasses are the first to establish themselves.
They benefit from the increased sunlight penetration and
readily available nutrients.
 Over time, these pioneer species are gradually replaced by
larger plants and shrubs, as the environment becomes
more shaded and soil conditions change.
 Through continued succession, the ecosystem progresses
towards a stable climax community. This is a self-
sustaining ecosystem characteristic of the region’s climate
and geography. The climax community represents a
mature stage with a complex web of plant and animal life.
Secondary succession
Other Types of succession
• Some other lesser-known types of ecological succession
are as follows:
Autogenic succession
• After the succession has begun, in most of the cases, it is
the community itself which, as a result of its reactions with
the environment, modifies its own environment and, thus,
causing its own replacement by new communities. This
course of succession is known as autogenic succession.
Allogenic succession
• In some cases replacement of one community by another
is largely due to forces other than the effects of
communities on the environment. This is called allogenic
succession and it may occur in a highly disturbed or
eroded area or in ponds where nutrients and pollutants
enter from outside and modify the environment and in turn
the communities.
Autotrophic succession
• It is characterized by early and continued dominance
of autotrophic organisms such as green plants. It begins
in a predominantly inorganic environments and the
energy flow is maintained indefinitely. There is gradual
increase in the organic matter content supported by
energy flow.
Heterotrophic succession
• It is characterized by early dominance of heterotrophic
organisms such as bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi and
animals. It begins in a medium which is rich in organic
matter such as small areas of rivers, streams; these are
polluted heavily with sewage or in small pools receiving
leaf litter in large quantities.
Induced succession
• Activities such as overgrazing, frequent scraping,
shifting cultivation or industrial pollution may cause
deterioration of an ecosystem. Agricultural practices
are retrogression of a stable state to a young state by
man’s deliberate action.
Retrogressive succession
• It means a return to simpler and less dense or even
impoverished form of community from an advanced or
climax community. In most cases, the causes are
allogenic, i.e., forces from outside the ecosystem
become severe and demanding. For example, most of
our natural forest stands are degrading into shrubs,
savanna or impoverished desert-like stands by the
severity of grazing animals brought from surrounding
villages. Excessive removal of wood, leaf and twig litter
also leads to retrogressive succession.
Cyclic succession
• It is of local occurrence within a large community. Here
cyclic refers to repeated occurrence of certain stages of
succession whenever there is an open condition
created within a large community.
• This occurs within existing communities and is simply a
cyclical change in the ecosystem’s structure. Some
plants grow at particular seasons of the year while
others stay dormant. This radically alters the habitat
Climax community
• The final or stable community in a sere is called as the climax
community.
• A climax community is the “endpoint” of succession within
the context of a particular climate and geography.
• It is self-perpetuating and in equilibrium with the physical
habitat. There is no net annual accumulation of organic
matter in a climax community. The annual production and use
of energy is balanced in such a community.
• A climax community will persist in a given location until a
disturbance occurs. However, in many ecosystems,
disturbance occurs frequently enough that a matrix of
community types may be consistently present on the
landscape.
• For example, in an area prone to wildfires like the western
U.S., mature forests may exist near grassy meadows with
fewer, scattered trees. Consistent disturbance and variation in
factors like water and nutrient availability over the course of
decades thus allows many plant and animal communities to
thrive within a particular climatic and geographic niche—not
just those adapted to the absence of disturbance seen in
climax communities.
Patterns Of Community
Structure
Characteristic of climax community
• Mature Communities
• High occurrence of vegetation patches
• Contain large plants
• High species diversity
• Well-established, efficient nutrient cycles
• Many, specialized niches
• High biomass
• Low Immigration Rate
• Efficient use of energy
• The climax community is able to tolerate its
own reaction.
• It is more highly organised.
• The climax community with its more complex
organisation has large number of species and
more niches.
• The organisms of earlier successional stages
tend to be smaller, shorter-lived with a higher
biotic potential (r-selected). In contrast, the
species of climax community tend to be
relatively large, long lived and with a low
biotic potential (K-selected).
• In climax community, energy is at a steady
state (net primary production is zero),
whereas, in immature stage of succession,
gross primary production tends to be greater
than community respiration, signifying
accumulation of energy.
• The vegetation is tolerant of environmental
conditions.
• It has a wide diversity of species, a well-drained
spatial structure, and complex food chains.
• The climax ecosystem is balanced. There is
equilibrium between gross primary production
and total respiration, between energy used from
sunlight and energy released by decomposition,
between uptake of nutrients from the soil and the
return of nutrient by litter fall to the soil.
• Individuals in the climax stage are replaced by
others of the same kind. Thus the species
composition maintains equilibrium.
• It is an index of the climate of the area.
• The life or growth forms indicate the climatic
type.
Types of climax
• Climatic Climax
 If there is only a single climax and the
development of climax community is
controlled by the climate of the region, it is
termed as climatic climax. For example,
development of Maple-beech climax
community over moist soil. Climatic climax is
theoretical and develops where physical
conditions of the substrate are not so extreme
as to modify the effects of the prevailing
regional climate.
• Edaphic Climax
 When there are more than one climax
communities in the region, modified by local
conditions of the substrate such as soil
moisture, soil nutrients, topography, slope
exposure, fire, and animal activity, it is called
• Catastrophic Climax
 Climax vegetation vulnerable to a
catastrophic event such as a wildfire. For
example, in California, chaparral vegetation
is the final vegetation. The wildfire removes
the mature vegetation and decomposers. A
rapid development of herbaceous vegetation
follows until the shrub dominance is re-
established. This is known as catastrophic
climax.
• Disclimax
 When a stable community, which is not the
climatic or edaphic climax for the given site,
is maintained by man or his domestic
animals, it is designated as Disclimax
(disturbance climax) or anthropogenic
subclimax (man-generated). For example,
• Subclimax
 The prolonged stage in succession just
preceding the climatic climax is subclimax.
• Preclimax and Postclimax
 In certain areas different climax
communities develop under similar climatic
conditions. If the community has life forms
lower than those in the expected climatic
climax, it is called preclimax; a community
that has life forms higher than those in the
expected climatic climax is postclimax.
Preclimax strips develop in less moist and
hotter areas, whereas Postclimax strands
develop in more moist and cooler areas than
that of surrounding climate.
Theories
• There are three schools of interpretations
explaining the climax concept:
• Monoclimax or Climatic Climax Theory: It
was advanced by Clements (1916) and
recognizes only one climax whose
characteristics are determined solely by
climate (climatic climax). The processes of
succession and modification of environment
overcome the effects of differences in
topography, parent material of the soil, and
other factors. The whole area would be
covered with uniform plant community.
Communities other than the climax are related
to it, and are recognized as subclimax,
postclimax and disclimax.
• Polyclimax Theory: It was advanced by
Tansley (1935). It proposes that the climax
• Climax Pattern Theory: it was proposed by
Whittaker (1953). The climax pattern theory
recognizes a variety of climaxes governed by
responses of species populations to biotic and
abiotic conditions. According to this theory the
total environment of the ecosystem determines
the composition, species structure, and
balance of a climax community. The
environment includes the species' responses to
moisture, temperature, and nutrients, their
biotic relationships, availability of flora and
fauna to colonize the area, chance dispersal of
seeds and animals, soils, climate, and
disturbance such as fire and wind. The nature
of climax vegetation will change as the
environment changes. The climax community
represents a pattern of populations that
corresponds to and changes with the pattern
 Any
Question