Ecological Succession Flashcards
7 cards from real Ecology practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Ecological Succession flashcards as text
Which of the following is an example of autogenic succession?
Answer: Vegetation changing a bog into a forest through peat accumulation
Autogenic succession is driven by the organisms within the community themselves, as when bog vegetation accumulates peat and gradually changes conditions until the bog becomes forest.
In lake succession (hydrosere), what is the typical progression from an open water body to a terrestrial community?
Answer: Lake → marsh → shrubs → forest
Hydrosere succession typically proceeds from open water to aquatic plants, then marsh, then shrubs and trees as sediment accumulation raises the substrate above water level.
Which factor most directly determines whether the climax community in a region is deciduous forest, grassland, or desert?
Answer: Climate, particularly temperature and precipitation patterns
Regional climate — especially long-term patterns of temperature and precipitation — is the primary determinant of the type of climax community that develops in a given area.
The concept of 'relay floristics' in succession refers to:
Answer: Sequential replacement of species groups where each facilitates the next
Relay floristics describes how different groups of species sequentially replace one another during succession, with each group modifying conditions that facilitate the next group's establishment.
Which of the following best explains why later successional species tend to be taller and longer-lived than early successional species?
Answer: Later species are adapted to compete for light in increasingly shaded environments
As succession proceeds, canopy closure increases shading, so species that can grow tall and tolerate or exploit low-light conditions gain competitive advantage over short-lived, sun-requiring pioneers.
Fire-maintained ecosystems like some grasslands and pine forests are best described as:
Answer: Disclimax or fire-maintained communities that depend on periodic disturbance
Fire-maintained ecosystems are sometimes called disclimaxes because they are held in a persistent non-climax state by recurring disturbance (fire), rather than representing the endpoint of undisturbed succession.
What is chronosequence analysis, and why is it used in studying succession?
Answer: It uses sites of different ages since disturbance as surrogates for time to study long-term successional change
Chronosequence analysis substitutes space for time by comparing communities at sites of different known ages since disturbance, allowing ecologists to infer successional trajectories without waiting centuries.