Ecological Succession.

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Ecological Succession

Succession is "A sequence of ecological changes in an area whereby one group of plant or animal species successively gives way to another, culminating in a climax community." This succession occurs in a number of sereal stages. A sere is a stage in a sequence of events by which succession occurs. The complete chain of seres is called a prisere. It begins with a pioneer community and ends with a climax community. This climax community occurs when the ultimate vegetation has become in equilibrium with the local environment.

There are four main areas where succession occurs rocky environment called a lithosere, sandy environment called a psammosere, a fresh water environment called a hydrosere and a salt-water environment called a halosere.

Two examples of a litosere are Sutsey a newly, formed volcanic island and Krakatoa an island striped of all its vegetation by a series of volcanic eruptions. Sutsey is located to the south east of Iceland and is slowly becoming colonised. The first colonisers of the bare rock on a lithosere environment are blue-green bacteria and single cell photosynthesisers, both of which have no need of a root system. Blue-green bacteria are autotrophs producing their