Succession

Succession:
Primary Succession: starts in newly formed habitats, where there has never been a
community before.
Secondary Succession: this is when one community changes into another. This is when
an existing community has been cleared, by something like a fire, and succession begins
again.
The pioneer species: the first organism to begin to colonise the bear rock. Examples
of a pioneer species include lichen and algae. These are the only species that can
withstand the extreme temperature and lack of soil, water and nutrients.
The pioneer species begin to break down the rock, allowing some organic material to
accumlate. The organic material and small pieces of rock build up, and soil starts to form.
This change, along with a few other changes, allows for other species to begin to grow.
One of these species would be the wind-blown moss spores.
Succession continues... the mosses will build up more organic material in the soil,
which allows the soil to hold water. This means that small, shallow rooted plants are able
to take root, and establish themselves.
From here on conditions in the habitat improves and seeds from larger, taller plants
appear. They compete with the smaller plants that have already been established, and
they win. They replace the existing community.
Eventually... a community dominated (usually) by trees is formed. This is known as the
climax community, and is stable. This means it will remain unchanged until there is a
change in the habitats conditions.
The climax community is dependent on environmental conditions (such as the soil type
and climate) and what species are available.
Secondary Succession:
When plants grow on bare soil, made by something like a forest fire, they mark the early
stages in secondary succession. This, if left, would lead to the re-establishment of the
natural forest climax community. In the UK this would be an oak forest, but in South
America this would be a rainforest.

Deflected Succession:
When a community remains stable because of human intervention, this is called deflected
succession. An example would be farm animals grazing preventing the grasslands from
turning into a woodland. Another example would be the community of organisms in your
garden.
There are climax communities that are without trees, such as the Keen of Hamar. The
environment and underlying rock prevent much other then grass and a few rare plants
from growing. These are low-competition pioneer phase species, but have been the
climax community there for around 10,000 years.