Kameir

Ecological succession, is the phenomenon or process by which a community progressively transforms itself until a stable community is formed. It is a fundamental concept in ecology, refers to more or less predictable and orderly changes in the composition or structure of an ecological community. Succession may be initiated either by formation of new, unoccupied habitat or by some form of disturbance of an existing community. Succession that begins in areas where no soil is initially present is called primary succession, whereas succession that begins in areas where soil is already present is called secondary succession.

There is a concept in ecological succession called the “climax” community. The climax community represents a stable end product of the successional sequence. In the climate and landscape region of the Nature Trail, this climax community is the “Oak-Poplar Forest” subdivision of the Deciduous Forest Biome. An established Oak-Poplar Forest will maintain itself for a very long period of time. Its apparent species structure and composition will not appreciably change over observable time. To this degree, we could say that ecological succession has “stopped”. We must recognize, however, that any ecosystem, no matter how inherently stable and persistent, could be subject to massive external disruptive forces that could re-set and re-trigger the successional process. As long as these random and potentially catastrophic events are possible, it is not absolutely accurate to say that succession has stopped. Also, over long periods of time  the climate conditions and other fundamental aspects of an ecosystem change. These geological time scale changes are not observable in our “ecological” time, but their fundamental existence and historical reality cannot be disputed. No ecosystem, then, has existed or will exist unchanged or unchanging over a geological time scale.