Ecological succession

Any biocenosis depends on its biotope, and, accordingly, the biotope is influenced by the biocenosis.

Since climatic, geological and biotic factors are subject to change, the community inevitably changes.

With a change in conditions, the biocenosis changes, that is, the previous one is destroyed and the next one arises in the same place. The emergence of a new biocenosis, its gradual formation, and then the development of an already established community until it is replaced by a new one is the process of development of any community, which is called succession (from the Latin “succession” – succession, change).

The successive change of one biocenosis to another is called ecological succession.

A separate stage of succession is an ecosystem with a certain set of species of living organisms (serial community).
The stages follow one after one until a stable equilibrium state (climax) is reached.

Climax is the final stage in the development of biocenosis, when a community comes into equilibrium with the environment, and its energy production approaches energy consumption.
The climax biocenosis remains unchanged for a long time (in several human lives).

The succession phases change in accordance with certain rules. Each phase prepares the environment for the emergence of the next.

The law of the sequence of the development phases: the development phases of a natural system can only follow in an evolutionarily fixed (historically, ecologically conditioned) order, usually from a relatively simple to a complex one, as a rule, without the loss of intermediate stages, but, possibly, with their very rapid passage or evolutionary fixed absence.

The variety of species forms the direction of succession, ensures the filling of real space with life. An insufficient number of species that make up the complex could not form a succession series, and gradually, with the destruction of climax ecosystems, there would be a complete desertification of the planet.