Ecological succession is the process by which the species composition of a community changes over time, either through primary succession, in which pioneer species colonize newly exposed, lifeless ground such as bare rock, or secondary succession, in which a community recolonizes ground after a disturbance that leaves the soil intact and recovery proceeds faster. Henry Chandler Cowles described the pattern in Lake Michigan sand dunes around 1899, and Frederic Clements argued in 1916 that succession converges deterministically on a single, climate determined climax community, a view Arthur Tansley challenged in his own 1935 paper as too rigid an analogy to the development of an individual organism.
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Proposed YearSourced to the subject's own account1899 is Cowles own first publication; Clements general theory followed in 1916 and is the version many textbooks credit instead. Proposed BySourced to the subject's own accountCowles published the first empirical description, a dune-vegetation study, in 1899; Frederic Clements advanced succession as a general ecological theory in 1916, and textbooks credit one or the other depending on emphasis on description versus theory. Connections
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Ecological succession changes which niches are available and occupied in a community over time
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Source Ecological Succession (Wikipedia)
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Source Ecological Succession (Wikipedia)
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Also in Nature Atlas: the same subject.
Source What Is Ecological Succession? (University of Chicago News)
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1. Ecological Succession (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHistory section
He first published this work as a paper in the Botanical Gazette in 1899.
Belongs To: Ecology, Lead paragraph
Ecological succession is the process of how species compositions change in an ecological community over time.
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