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• Definitions
– Seres and stages
– Autogenic vs. allogenic succession
– Progressive vs. retrogressive succession
– Facilitation, inhibition, life-history traits
• Examples of primary and secondary succession
• Methods of documenting succession
– Historical long-term data from permanent plots
– Examination of plots along a chronosequence
– Pollen record
– Dendrochronolgy
• Models of succession
• Facilitation vs. inhibition (Cowles vs. Clements)
• Relay floristics vs. intial floristic composition (Egler vs. Clements)
• Plant strategies vs. resource limitation (Grime vs. Tilman)
Exam Friday, March 10
• The exam will cover material since that last exam, Lessons 12-21.
• I will send the exam out via email by 5 pm on March 10.
• The exam is due at 9 am on Tues Mar 21, following Spring Break.
• The format will be similar to the first exam except there may one or two short essays.
Succession
• It refers to the progressive change in the dominance and composition such that the
community will not return to former state without a disturbance that resets the
process of succession.
• Generally, it refers to the changes that occur with time scales of less than 500-1000
years (However, in the Arctic successional changes can be extremely slow, occurring
over periods of thousands of years, in the case glacial succession.)
• It does not include the regular seasonal changes in plant communities, nor the
regular changes that may be due to predictable climatic events (e.g., burst of annuals
following rain in the desert).
• It also does not include the extremely long-term change associated with geologic
changes (does include glacial succession), or long-term climate change.
Cowles Chicago School of Dynamic Ecology
• Cowles and his students started the dynamic
approach to studying vegetation change through
time.
– Facilitation: The process whereby site factors are improved through the process
of succession for establishment of the next sere (e.g., increased organic matter,
nitrogen fixation, moister soils for seedling establishment.)
Left -- Quartzite rock with Grimmia clones expanding from crevices. Crustose and Based on Oosting and Anderson 1939.
foliose lichens cover most of the surface elsewhere. In Daubenmire 1968.
Right - Successively wider rock crevices from right to left suggest stages of
succession from herbs to low shrubs to tall shrubs as the fracture planes weather. The
stabilized lichen-covered surface tends to be overriden by vascular communities
expanding from the crevices. In the background is a suggestion of a still later stage
consisting of conifer dominated forest. Cadillac Mountain, Mt. Desert Island, Maine.
Principal stages of primary succession on granite rock
Dunes captured by Abronia maritima and Fraseria in the Baja Dunes in the Salton Sea of California with Prosopsis
California. pubescens that has grown to keep pace with sand that collects
in the still air beneath the branches.
Dune surface near Minneapolis that has been quiescent for several Dunes well stabilized by Ericameria ericoides and other shrubs along
years, resulting in the establishment of many young plants of the the California coast near Santa Maria.
coarse Calamovilfa longifolia,
Fen to bog
transition
River floodplain sere: Tanana River
(Viereck 1970, Van Cleve and Viereck 1981, L. Walker et al., 1986; Adams 1999)
Involves development of
a soil hardpan and
water-logging of the
site (paludification).
Retrogressive succession involving bryophyte paludification in
southeast Alaska (Klinger 1990)
Paludification
Daubenmire 1977
Forest adaptations to fire
Old fields
dominated by
broomsedge
(Andropogon
virginicus)
with scatterd
pine seedlings
are typical of
secondary
succession 3-
6 yr after
abandonment
and prior to
dominance by
pine.
• Opuntia leptocualis
uses Larrea tredentata
as a mother plant.
• Eventually Opuntia
outcompetes Larrea.
Stand
ages:
a. 20
b. 30
c. 35
d. 49
e. 60
Dryas
stage
1941 1967
1986 1986
Spruce stage
Study Methods (Chapin et al. 1994)
• Site characterization at 10 study plots within each successional stage
(soil, nutrient pools, PAR) (facilitation study).
• Greenhouse plot tests to ascertain changes in soil fertility (facilitation
study).
• Life history traits of Dryas, alder, and spruce within each successional
stage (seed weights, growth rates, age of first reproduction, maximum
longevity, maximum height) (life history study).
• Seed arrival and germination (seed traps, in each stage, seedling
transplants of alder and spruce in each stage, studies of seedling
biomass) (life history study).
• Examination of natural seedlings growth (life history study).
• Experimental seedling transplants of alder and spruce (shade
experiments, litter experiments (inhibition experiment).
• Alder litter experiment on Dryas growth (inhibition experiment).
• Allochemical effect of plant litter on the establishment of seedlings and on
growth of the key species (inhibition experiment).
Soil properties during primary succession, Glacier Bay, AK (Chapin et al.
1994)
*Life history traits: Such factors as size, rate of growth, seed size, and
dispersal are of primary importance and control the general patterns of
succession. Proximity to seed sources are very important.
• Models of succession
– Facilitation vs. inhibition (Cowles vs. Clements)
– Relay floristics vs. intial floristic composition (Egler vs. Clements)
– Plant strategies vs. resource limitation (Grime vs. Tilman)
• Glacier study of Chapin et al. (1994) examined the relative roles of life
history traits, facilition and inhibition.