Understanding ecological community succession: Causal models and theories, a review

Abstract

Critical review of explanations for patterns of natural succession suggests a strong, common basis for theoretical understanding, but also suggests that several well known models are incomplete as explanations of succession. A universal, general cause for succession is unlikely, since numerous aspects of historical and environmental circumstances will impinge on the process in a unique manner. However, after disturbance, occupation of a site by any species causes changes in the conditions at the site. Sorting of species may result, since different species are adapted to different regions of environmental gradients. Such sorting can generate several patterns of species abundance in time, but commonly results in sequential replacements of species adapted to the varying conditions. This may be due to constraints on species' strategies, or life history traits, placed by the limited resources available to the organism. These constraints often result in inverse correlation between traits which confer success during early and late stages of succession. Facilitatory or inhibitory effects of species on each other are best understood in terms of these life history interactions, perhaps as restrictions on, or as moderation of, these processes.Strong support for the importance of correlations in life history traits stems from comparisons of simulated succession with and without these correlations. These simulations are reviewed in some detail, and followed by brief reviews of other prominent models for succession. Several aspects of the confusion and controversies in the successional literature are then discussed, with a view to a more optimistic synthesis and direction for successional ecology.

Effects of herbivores and water quality on Sargassum distribution on the central Great Barrier Reef:cross-shelf transplants

“…Each of these processes and their effects is likely to depend on predictable or stochastic variations in scale, circumstances and history and to vary depending on the species or groups concerned (e.g. Hay 1984a, Hughes et al 1987, Hughes 1989also Foster 1990, McCook & Chapman 1991, 1993McCook 1994). The variability and complexity of the system mean that the results of individual experiments should not be extrapolated to other circumstances without considerable caution.…”

Larvae from afar colonize deep-sea hydrothermal vents after a catastrophic eruption

“…The particular species of pioneers depends on which larvae are available in the interval shortly after the eruption, as influenced by time-variant transport processes (17), or spawning cycles (26). This type of postdisturbance colonization scenario, contingent on supply of new pioneers, has been observed in a variety of marine and terrestrial environments (27)(28)(29). Our larval flux measurements, initiated roughly 6 months after the main seismic event in January 2006, and possibly even longer after the main lava extrusion, did not measure supply in the first few months after the eruption.…”

“…Although changes in gastropod species composition also occur during succession at vents (34,35), no clear sequence of species replacement has been observed, and the pioneer gastropod colonists after the 1991 eruption did not include C. porifera or L. tevnianus (36). Deterministic succession is found in terrestrial meadows and temperate forests (28,37), both quite stable systems where disturbance time scales are long relative to species' generation times. In contrast, the EPR vents are a system where disturbance occurs at intervals approaching species' generation times.…”

The ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) communities of the central interior of British Columbia: Adaptations to a temperature-constrained environment.

“…Initially, Gleason (1917) and Clements (1916) defined two competing views of this process, with Gleason's "Individualistic Hypothesis" becoming generally supported as environmental data became available (McCook 1994;Cook 1996). This hypothesis, now theory, suggests that succession is simply a process in which individual species respond (via presence or absence) to the prevailing abiotic site conditions.…”