Change in Communities

Disturbance & Succession

“If you live in Louisiana, there

are only two possibilities:
either your land
will eventually flood,
or it will eventually burn.”

Keddy (2008)

Water, Earth, Fire:

Louisiana’s Natural Heritage

Hurricane Katrina
Satellite image taken Aug. 29, 2005

Image from http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/Images/katrina_goe_2005241_lrg.jpg

 Change in Communities
Disturbance & Succession

Anak Krakatau (emerged from the sea as new volcanic island in 1927)
Satellite image taken June 11, 2005

Image taken by Ikonos satellite from Wikimedia Commons

 Change in Communities
Disturbance & Succession

Feral hog disturbance to seepage bog at Eglin Air Force Base, FL

Photo taken October 25, 2014

K. Harms’s photo
 Succession, Disturbance & Stress
Succession – directional change in community composition at a site
(as opposed to simple fluctuations), initiated by natural or
anthropogenic disturbance, or the creation of a new site

Some biologists restrict the definition to directional

replacement of species after disturbance

Disturbance – a discrete event that damages or kills residents

on a site (and potentially creates opportunities for other
individuals to grow or reproduce);
either catastrophic or non-catastrophic
(Platt & Connell 2003 Ecological Monographs)

Stress – abiotic factor that reduces growth, reproduction, or survival of

individuals (and potentially creates opportunities for other individuals)
 Disturbance
Catastrophic disturbance – a disturbance that kills all residents of
all species on a site; i.e., creates a “blank slate”
(Platt & Connell 2003 Ecological Monographs)

Mt. St. Helens, Washington, U.S.A.

May 18, 1980

Photo of Mt. St. Helens from Wikimedia Commons

 Disturbance
Non-catastrophic disturbance – a disturbance that falls short of
wiping out all organisms from a site; i.e., leaves “residual organisms”
or “biological legacies” (Platt & Connell 2003 Ecological Monographs)

Yellowstone Nat’l. Park, U.S.A. Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico

just after 1988 fires just after 1989 Hurricane Hugo

Photo of Yellowstone in 1988 from Wikimedia Commons;

Photo of Luquillo Forest, Puerto Rico in 1989 from http://pr.water.usgs.gov/public/webb/hurricane_hugo.html
 Disturbance
Intensity, Frequency & Extent

Cain, Bowman & Hacker (2014), Fig. 17.4

 Disturbance & Succession
Primary Succession – succession that occurs after the creation of
a “blank slate,” either through catastrophic disturbance or
de novo creation of a new site

Mt. St. Helens, Washington, U.S.A. Anak Krakatau, Indonesia

May 18, 1980 appeared above water 1927

Photo of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 from Wikimedia Commons;

Photo of Anak Krakatau from http://amazingindonesia.net/2008/06/mount-krakatoa-the-wrath-of-earth
 Disturbance & Succession
Secondary Succession – succession that occurs after
non-catastrophic disturbance (including “old fields”)

Yellowstone Nat’l. Park, U.S.A. Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico

just after 1988 fires just after 1989 Hurricane Hugo

Photo of Yellowstone in 1988 from Wikimedia Commons;

Photo of Luquillo Forest, Puero Rico in 1989 from http://pr.water.usgs.gov/public/webb/hurricane_hugo.html
 Disturbance

Cain, Bowman & Hacker (2014), Fig. 17.5

 Disturbance & Succession
Henry Chandler Cowles

Lake Michigan sand dunes – late 1800s

Concluded that sites on the dunes were
older further inland, i.e., formed a
“chronosequence” from which temporal
change could be inferred
(space-for-time substitution)

Photo of Cowles from http://oz.plymouth.edu/~lts/ecology/ecohistory/cowles.html;

photo of Lake Michigan sand dune from http://ebeltz.net/folio/cfol-5.html
 Disturbance & Succession
Frederick Clements
Radical, “superorganism” view of communities;
species interact to promote a directed pattern of
community development through “seral” stages,
ending in a “climax” community

Henry Gleason
“individualistic view of succession” in which
“every species is a law unto itself”

Our modern population-biology view derives primarily

from Gleason’s conceptual model, even though
Clementsian ideas of deterministic progression through
seral to climax stages dominated ecological theory
well into the 20th century
Photos from http://oz.plymouth.edu/~lts/ecology/ecohistory/history.html
 Disturbance & Succession
Three Models of Succession
Connell & Slatyer (1977) The American Naturalist

1. Facilitation – Early-colonizing species modify the environment and

enhance the establishment of later-arriving species (if it occurs, it is
perhaps most likely in primary succession)

2. Tolerance – Early-colonizing species modify the environment, but

have no effect on later-arriving species

3. Inhibition – Early-colonizing species modify the environment in

ways that actively inhibit later-arriving species
 Disturbance & Succession
Primary succession along the Glacier Bay chronosequence

One of the world’s most rapid and extensive glacial retreats in modern times
(so far); eliminated ~2500 km2 of ice in ~200 yr, exposing large
expanses of nutrient-poor boulder till to biotic colonization

Photo of Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska from Wikimedia Commons

 Disturbance & Succession
Primary succession along the Glacier Bay chronosequence

Reconstructed patterns of
stand development at
several sites within the
chronosequence;
intensively analyzed
tree-rings

Cain, Bowman & Hacker (2014), Fig. 17.9, after Fastie (1995) Ecology
 Disturbance & Succession
Primary succession along the Glacier Bay chronosequence

Species richness
generally
increased with
successional age

Cain, Bowman & Hacker (2014), Fig. 17.10, after Reiners et al. (1971) Ecology
 Disturbance & Succession
Primary succession along the Glacier Bay chronosequence

Soil conditions
generally improved with
successional age

Cain, Bowman & Hacker (2014), Fig. 17.11, after Chapin et al. (1994) Ecological Monographs
 Disturbance & Succession
Primary succession along the Glacier Bay chronosequence

Positive,
negative,
and neutral
influences
occur
through
succession

Cain, Bowman & Hacker (2014), Fig. 17.12, after Chapin et al. (1994) Ecological Monographs
 Alternative Stable
States

Strong interactor species

appear to be especially
important for determining
the trajectory towards
alternative stable states.

It is difficult to establish
the existence of true
alternative stable states,
as opposed to different
abiotic conditions
in the sites.

Cain, Bowman & Hacker (2014), Fig. 17.17, after Sutherland (1974) American Naturalist
 Alternative Stable States
If a strong interactor species pushes a community into an
alternative stable state, even once that interactor species
is removed the community will remain in the alternative state.

Cain, Bowman & Hacker (2014), Fig. 17.18, after Beisner et al. (2003) Frontiers in Ecology & the Environment