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Plant
Succession
Vegetation and water are the basic building blocks of
habitat management. Every acre of soil and water has
a definite sequence in plant cover that occurs over time. This
sequence of plant cover is called successional stages.
Different wildlife species are often associated with different stages of plant
succession. In general, plant succession occurs as follows:
Stage 1: Bare ground
Stage 2: Annual forbs and/or grasses
Stage 3: Perennial forbs and grasses
Stage 4: Shrubs
Stage 5: Young woodland or trees (less than 70 years old)
Stage 6: Mature woodland or trees (older than 70 years)
See succession occur before your eyes!
>> For
an animated visual demonstration of what typically takes
years to occur, click here.
(Requires Quicktime player, available here)
In theory, the type of vegetation that occurs in each stage is predictable depending
upon the time that elapsed since the last disturbance. Natural disturbances
include fire, tornados, floods, fires, and other such occurrences that happen
without human interference. People can alter succession by plowing, burning,
timber cutting, grazing, and clearing shrubby areas, all of which mimic natural
disturbances.
Here are some other important concepts about plant succession:
- If vegetation is disturbed, succession will revert to an earlier stage
and begin again.
- A single step in this succession may take weeks, months, or years depending
on a variety of natural and human-caused factors.
- In some areas, natural factors such as the soil or the climate will
prevent succession from proceeding past a certain stage. For instance,
in a tallgrass prairie, soil composition or lack of moisture often prevents
succession from proceeding past stage 3.
- Some wildlife species depend on vegetative disturbance for their survival.
Nature never gives up. For example, even abandoned concrete parking lots
are eventually taken over by plants. Plants first grow in the cracks and
around the edges, then if left alone, a concrete parking lot will eventually
become “habitat” for some wildlife species. |
