Ecological Succession

The replacement of one

community by another until
a climax community (stable
Stage) is reached
Start’s with a pioneer organism
 Def: An organism that begins the process of
ecological succesion in a new envorionment.
 Examples:
• Lichens on rocks will erode the rocks creating pockets
of soil in the crevices of rocks.
 The pioneer organism
will alter the
environment so that a
bigger and better
organism can move in
 Example: The lichen
creates soil so that
grasses can begin to
grow.
This will continue to occur with each
organism
 This will continue until a climax community is
reached
 A climax community is a self-perpetuating
community which populations remain stable
and exist in balance with each other and the
environment.
 A climax community can
only be disrupted by a
catastrophe.
 After the catastrophe it
will then rebuild itself
back up again.
Pine barrens in West Hampton
1995 on route 27 by West
Hampton
Analogy
 Think of how the town of East Hampton
has progressed through the past century,
it works much like ecological succession
 Each store create a better economy for a
more expensive store to come in.