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Alternative Title: primary plant succession

Primary succession, type of ecological succession (the evolution of a biological community’s ecological structure) in which plants and animals first colonize a barren, lifeless habitat. Species that arrive first in the newly created environment are called pioneer species, and through their interactions they build a simple initial biological community. This community becomes more complex as new species arrive. Primary succession is distinguished from secondary succession, which is the recovery of an existing biological community after a disturbance sets back the community’s ecological structure to an earlier stage.

Primary succession

Primary succession

Primary succession begins in barren areas, such as on bare rock exposed by a retreating glacier. The first inhabitants are lichens or plants—those that can survive in such an environment. Over hundreds of years these “pioneer species” convert the rock into soil that can support simple plants such as grasses. These grasses further modify the soil, which is then colonized by other types of plants. Each successive stage modifies the habitat by altering the amount of shade and the composition of the soil. The final stage of succession is a climax community, which is a very stable stage that can endure for hundreds of years.

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Primary succession

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Ecological succession

Pioneer species

Lava-sterilized landscapes, newly formed sand dunes, and rocks either deposited or scoured by retreating glaciers are examples of settings in which primary succession often occurs, because these places either lack soil or their soil cannot sustain life. On newly created volcanic islands, for example, after the rock cools, seeds blown by the wind may lodge in crevices, germinate, and take root. Often these first colonizing plants are weedy species, such as fast-growing grasses and lichens, that do not grow tall but do reproduce quickly. After these plants germinate and grow, they die and decompose, and their remains create pockets of soil in which other plants, as well as fungi, can become established. Over time, such fast-growing vegetation covers more and more of the island, and seeds from other, hardier, taller-growing plants arrive on the wind or are transported by birds that begin to use the island as a stopover during migration.

Surtsey

Surtsey

Surtsey, a volcanic island off the southern coast of Iceland, emerged from the Atlantic Ocean in a fiery eruption in November 1963. Shortly thereafter plants such as sea rocket (Cakile arctica), sand ryegrass (Leymus arenarius), oysterleaf (Mertensia maritima), and seaside sandplant (Honckenya peploides) colonized the island. Much of Surtsey's vegetation is composed of lichens and mosses. However, some higher plants such as the dwarf willow (Salix herbacea) and tea-leaved willow (S. phylicifolia) have grown on the island since the 1990s.

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These new arrivals shade out sun-loving grasses, shrubs, and other pioneer species, and their cast-off parts decay and add to the soil, altering it by mixing with soil particles left by the decay of earlier plants. More plants and animals arrive (the latter rafting over on flotsam or flying from nearby islands or the mainland), and some become established on the island. The ecosystem changes with each new arrival. Over several decades, the biological community transitions from collections of pioneer and intermediate species to a climax community—that is, a relatively balanced ecological stage whose ecological structure and species composition are far less volatile than those of earlier stages.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

This article was most recently revised and updated by John P. Rafferty, Editor.

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