Ecological Succession is what we know as the evolution of nature. We have all looked around at some point and wondered how did that happen, how did it get here, how long did it take? among many other questions. Everything around us goes through cycles of change and evolution. In this article we explain in detail what this sequence consists of. Go ahead, keep reading and learn!
Ecological Succession
It could be said that the Ecological Succession is those gradual changes that occur in nature and in the factors that integrate it. These changes are evident in time and space, where species colonizations are observed, but also their disappearance. The ideal is that every ecosystem can reach a true balance and that journey that is made until reaching the climax or maximum stability is the succession and its different phases is called the evolutionary series.
All living beings, from those that inhabit the waters to those on land, have been establishing certain links, especially in the nutritional aspect. For this reason, the producers, the consumers and the decomposers are established in the line. This is what is known as the food chain which is vital for a healthy balance on the planet.
So, ecological succession is nothing more than that evolutionary process or replacement of a species by a better one of which all of nature is a part, whether due to internal or external causes. This in some cases can become predictable, without human intervention and is usually a kind of competition between species in the same ecosystem. For this reason, this process is recognized more as a way of organizing life where adaptation plays its most important role.
In the case that the plants or animals are considered as a representative type of their species, variety or race from which the communities depart towards the climax, they are of aquatic origin, they are called hydroseries and if they occur on land xeroserie.
Types of Ecological Succession
This process of ecological succession tends to propel life towards change. When it is constituted by successions to the first community, the term pioneer is attributed to it. The other phases are known as primary or complete series, secondary and regressive succession or climax.
primary succession
They are those successions that begin in terreros avid for life, which has not been previously occupied. That is, when a new habitat is being formed from scratch. The species that dare to colonize these spaces are mainly those of a vegetal nature in its most basic form, these are called pioneers.
This process begins with the formation of the biologically active terrestrial layer. In it, microorganisms begin to develop, nutrients that will give way to the formation of roots. This occurs more than anything where the mother rock is exposed to the air and where it must go through a process of erosion, that is, when naturally the rocks and soil break away from the earth's surface and are transferred to another place by the action of wind and water.
Weathering also influences, which is the decomposition of minerals and rocks, this occurs on or near the earth's surface when these materials come into contact with the atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere. These are elements that allow the colonization of soils, since they do not require much organic matter. This is where life begins through lichens generating small amounts of organic material that give way to mosses and so on.
In the case of animals, colonization normally begins through insects, later invertebrates, birds and reptiles join, which little by little make the community increase in a cohesive way with the plants. These communities can house even huge mammals as the ecosystem will become rich in food making it a perfect habitat.
secondary succession
This succession gives way to another already established, that is, to a space that has been attacked by some element such as fire, it can also be caused by logging, floods, pollution and diseases, to name a few factors. Hence, it is also called progressive succession and in order for it to originate, it must have properties prior to the event.
Mostly these areas or spaces have the so-called waste or legacies and the greater their presence, the faster the succession and recovery of the space will be. This increases the heterogeneity of the environment. The plant species that grow in these soils do so slowly and their photosynthetic process is not as efficient. Their demand for nutrients is low, which facilitates their accommodation.
The species that evolve under this condition tend to be more competitive and specialized, adapting very well to the environment. As is the case of pyrophilic species, which feed on burned land.
regressive succession or disclimax
As its name indicates, its meaning is contrary to the climax, that is, they go towards the immature stages of the ecosystems. This is a kind of ecosystem degradation caused by human activity. This is mostly due to the destruction of some of the stages of evolution. Such is the case of forests that burn constantly to the point of desertification, turning the fertile and habitable land into a desert. It must be clarified that it is not an inverted succession, but on the contrary, it is the loss of the system.
Other Situations in the Evolutionary Series
There are other situations that can occur in successions, such as the anteclimax, which due to adverse conditions prevent the species from reaching climax. The paraclimax, when the plant formation is in equilibrium, but they do not belong to the zone, which makes it almost the conditions of a climax. In the case of the peniclimax, in this case the climax experiences the influence of man, in which its elements can vary.
Colonization, for its part, refers to the process of establishing biological species in a previously unoccupied area. The balance occurs when the different organisms, plants or animals, that live and reproduce in certain conditions of an environment, without presenting changes, because the edaphic, biotic and climatic conditions are very stable and limit each other. Maturity is when the ecosystem is fully developed, reaching the most advanced stage of succession.
Mechanisms of Ecological Succession
Ecologists affirm that for ecological succession to occur, certain mechanisms must be in place, such as facilitation, which is when colonizing species allow and facilitate the arrival of other species in later periods, especially during primary succession. Another mechanism is competition, here the species fight for their space and available resources. In the case of pioneer species that are the first to inhabit places that have been inhospitable.
The tissues of these pioneer plants are loaded with large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus, which makes them an ideal food for herbivores, which significantly accelerates succession, so they tend to disappear and give way to later plants.
Examples of Ecological Succession
Some of the most outstanding examples of ecological succession, it is worth noting that it presents the same phases both in the terrestrial and aquatic environment. Where the producing organisms are the first to settle, because without their presence the consumers do not appear and in this way the necessary balance to reach the climax would not be achieved.
The dunes of Lake Michigan are a living example of ecological succession, because at the end of the last glaciation period, the great lakes retreated, exposing large dunes, which are nothing more than sand formations that accumulate on the shores of the lakes. . Over the years and thanks to the environmental conditions, there have been indications of the first successions of the primary type.
Here the species showed great resistance to droughts, but at the same time they have helped to fix the dunes. Subsequently appearing bushes, cherry trees and trees, which were replaced by pine forests that continue with the work of fixing the substrate.
In the case of successions after volcanic events, the ejected lava cools down creating new layers of virgin land, in many cases this causes the islands to take on a large size and continue to grow. This gives way to primary succession which will eventually form new ecosystems. It should be noted that this event usually ends the existing ecosystems and some areas restart the succession.
Other examples
When an area is hit by strong and constant winds, this limits the succession since most of the plants only manage to reach their bushy phase. Another example is when seabirds arrive and settle on a volcanic island. When some kind of disaster occurs, such as a forest fire, a community tends to disappear in which many species die.
This in turn creates the conditions and space for other things to form, allowing new species to colonize and at the same time facilitating the arrival of other organisms that may have lived there. All this leads to the formation of new communities giving way to ecological succession. When a ship sinks in the ocean, it quickly begins to undergo a corrosion process and in turn begins the succession with plants and species becoming the habitat of new ecosystems.
Fun facts
Did you know that the planet, thanks to the presence of water in liquid phase, is the one that allows the evolution of ecosystems. The inner core of the earth is hotter than the sun. The oxygen present on the planet comes from plants. The longest mountain range on Earth is in the ocean. Scientists say that there are more than 1500 minerals that have not yet been identified and 50 that are known. Rocks have been shown to have movement.
If you want to know more about Ecological Succession in an illustrative way, we invite you to watch the following video:
We are all essential on the planet because we are part of a complex and interactive system, both natural elements such as water, air, earth and everything that implies life are an important part of the constant changes and the evolutionary cycle of all must be respected in order to continue having a living planet.
Learn much more about the Environment through the following links.
Difference Between Ecology and Environment
Consequences of Beach Pollution