Principle of Ecological Succession | Biotic Communities and Succession | Environmental Geography | Physical geography

Biotic Communities:

There are two major components of the environment, biotic and abiotic. The biotic component of the environment includes living organisms including plants, animals, and microorganisms.

Biotic components of the environment and biotic community are both the same as both include all the living organisms (plants, animals, and micro-organisms) of the biosphere.

Ecological succession;

Ecological succession is a process where biological communities and their habitats in an area change over time. Ecological succession is a type of community succession that results from changes in the environment.

In order to survive and adapt to the changing environment, there is a need for every biological community to change from time to time with the environment. This change takes place in a gradual sequence and is parallel to the changes in the physical environment.

The gradual and predictable change in the biological species composition of given areas is called ecological succession or biological succession.

During the ecological succession process, some species of the community colonize areas, and the population of the same increases; As a result, populations of other species decline and even become extinct. Therefore, populations of species in biological succession are the result of their physical environment and other competition in biological communities.

The entire sequence of communities, which successfully transforms in a given area, is called a sere. A changing community is called a Seral community. For example, the succession of an aquatic community is called HydroSere. The succession on the bare rock surface is called Lithosere.

During ecological succession, a community is formed which is close to the equilibrium of the environment. The last such community is called the climax community. In a climax community, the population of some species will increase and some will decrease to reach equilibrium.

Those species which invade vacant and bare rocks are called pioneer species. For example, lichen is the original pioneer species. Lichens secrete acid on rocks which helps in weathering of rocks and the formation of soil. Later smaller plants such as bryophytes grow, and eventually, a stable climax community is formed after several stages.

There are two types of ecological succession – primary succession and secondary succession.

Primary Succession:

Primary Succession is a process that starts in an area where no living organism ever existed like newly cooled lava, bare rock, newly created pond, or reservoir.

The establishment of new biotic communities is slow as it takes thousands of years to establish fertile soil and humus on bare rock.

Secondary Succession:

Secondary succession begins in areas where biological communities have been destroyed for some reason such as abandoned fields, burned or deforested areas, or flooded lands. Since few soils and sediments are present in these areas, secondary sequestration is faster than primary sequestration.

The succession of plants:

Depending on the nature of the habitat, there are two major types of plant succession: Hydrarch and xerarch succession. Hydrarch succession occurs in submerged areas ( very wet areas) while xerarch succession occurs in very dry areas.

Try to solve the following questions:

• Explain the characteristics of ecological succession. (UPSC 2016, 150 words, 10 marks)

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