ENVB 305 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Pioneer Species, Climax Community, Secondary Succession

• School: McGill University
• Department: Environmental Biology
• Course: ENVB 305
• Professor: Christopher Buddle

Document Summary

Defined as the change in communities over time. Occurs on many different levels over different periods of time. In plant communities, young fields->old fields->young forests->old forests. Colonization-competition trade-off- a species can be a good colonizer or a good competitor, but not both (though successful invasive species can do both) Primary succession- colonization of new substrates (ex: after a forest fire) Secondary succession- when a previously established community is removed by disturbance (ex: a fallen tree, intertidal zones) Facilitation- one species paves the way for others, there is an endpoint to the succession, called the climax community.