Plant Succession

We commonly see that land and forest areas get significantly influenced by natural calamities and undergo remarkable impacts due to anthropogenic activities. As a result of such phenomena, the area’s greenery is usually getting negatively affected. 

However, such areas typically reproduce greenery over time and even become fertile. A new type of plant community replaces the older plants in the same area. This basic process is called plant succession. 

Meaning of plant succession

In-plant succession, terms like pioneer and seral communities are commonly used. Pioneer refers to the first biotic community that invades the barren area, whereas the latter is called the plant communities’ translational development series. 

Further, the final stage of succession is called the climax community. Next, let’s understand the causes of succession, characteristics, and types. 

What are the causes of plant succession?

There has been parallelism in organic life’s ecological succession and evolution since the beginning. The process of plant succession is quite complicated to understand. However, there are three prime reasons for any plant’s succession as per data. These are:  

Initiating causes 

Numerous activities of biotic and abiotic elements cause the emergence of barren lands. They also result in the demolishment of existing plant communities of any space. 

Hence, they initiate primary or secondary plant succession. 

Continuing causes 

Activities like reaction migration competition and aggression lead to a continuation of a shift in the area’s soil nature and plant communities. 

Stabilising causes 

Here, climatic factors control the process of sterilisation in an area of plant communities. So while we define plant succession, mentioning its causes is also crucial. 

What are the characteristics of plant succession? 

• Plant succession refers to an organised process that results in shifting the specific habitat of the plant community. 
• It is the byproduct of changes in the biotic and abiotic factors. 
• It has the potential to bring stability to the plant community. 
• It causes gradual development in total biomass, variety of species, soil’s humus content, and niche specialisation. 
• It develops from normal food chain processes to a more complicated food web. 
• It changes the simple and lower life forms and makes them higher life forms. 
• It brings interdependence among the animal and plant community. 

What are the types of plant successions?  

There are multiple classifications of plant succession based on varied aspects. These are: 

Primary succession 

The earliest plant community development in the barren area refers to primary plant succession. This is also known as pioneer species. In general, primary plant succession takes considerable time to emerge in any area. Some primary colonies’ communities include lichen, microbes, and mosses. 

Secondary succession 

The secondary plant succession usually takes less time to develop than primary succession. It represents the growth of a new plant community in a region where the previous plant community went through destruction due to natural causes. Some examples of secondary succession include the destruction of forest areas by the fire, where herbs reoccupy the area over time. 

Autogenic succession

Autogenic plant succession takes place due to biotic factors. Here, the existing card community reacts with its surrounding atmosphere and shifts its habitat. This replaces the plant community with new species, and the process is known as autogenic succession.

Example: When bigger trees in the forest ecosystem create broader leaves, they provide consistent shade to their ground region. Due to this, the growth of herbs and shrubs of the floor area is affected as they need more light to develop. However, it enables the growth of species that flourish in shaded areas (sciophytes).

Allogenic succession

This type of plant succession takes place due to abiotic factors. Here are external factors that replace the prevailing plant community instead of other organisms. 

Example: Due to the soil erosion process in the forest ecosystem, soil’s nutritional value is reduced, which changes the region’s vegetation. 

Autotrophic succession

In this type of plant succession, autotrophic organisms such as green plantations are widespread. There is a significant boost in energy flow and organic matter in autotrophic succession due to the domination of green plants in the early stage of the five stages of plant succession. 

Heterotrophic succession

This type of plant succession usually occurs in organic habitats. Living organisms like actinomycetes, bacteria, fungi, and other animals dominate the initial phase of heterotrophic succession. Due to the domination of heterotrophs in the early stages, energy content decreases over time. 

Conclusion

Succession in the plant regulator of our forest ecosystem brings suitable vegetation as per our existing environment. In this article, we learned about plant succession definition and its varied types. Aside from this, we also went through a short but detailed overview of the causes and characteristics of plant succession.