Ecological succession

Ecological succession, is how a specific ecology changes after a disturbance like a fire.[1] In long-term studies, there is a species succession process in the way forests develop.[2]

After a forest fire: ecology changes after 1 year (left photo) and after 2 years (right photo)

Notable ecologists

Several scientists are prominent in the history of this theory:

  • Adolphe Dureau de la Malle was the first to use the word succession. He wrote about the process of re-growth after trees in a forest had been cut down.
  • Henry David Thoreau described succession in an Oak-Pine forest in "The Succession of Forest Trees" in the year 1859.
  • Henry Chandler Cowles developed a formal concept of plant-growth succession. Henry's work was based on studies of sand dunes in Danish by Eugen Warming. Cowles proposed the term sere. This is a repeat of changes which are shown in specific environmental circumstances.[3]
  • Frederic Clements proposed a theory that seres were highly predictable.[3]
  • Henry Gleason proposed that chance factors were very important, even in highly predicable sere areas.[3]

References
  1. Connell, Joseph and R. O. Slatyer. (1977). "Mechanisms of succession in natural communities and their role in community stability and organization," The American Naturalist, Vol. 111, Issue 982, pp. 1119–44.
  2. McEvoy, Thom. (2004). Positive Impact Forestry, p. 32.
  3. Goldsmith, Edward. "Ecological Succession Rehabilitated," Archived 2012-04-15 at the Wayback Machine The Ecologist, Vol. 15, No. 3, 1985; retrieved 2011-12-19.

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