Community Development and Structure

Terms:
species equilibrium, island biogeography, vagility, primary and secondary succession, facilitation, tolerance, and inhibitive models, sere, early, middle, and late successional species, climax community

climax community: The final successional stage in a community that remains dominant indefinitely unless a disturbance occurs.

early successional species: Species that can grow rapidly in disturbed conditions and therefore are the first to dominate in primary or secondary succession.

facilitation model: A model for succession where each sere creates suitable conditions for, or facilitates, the next sere to dominate in a directed and predictable manner.

inhibitive model: A model of succession where dominate species in one sere tolerate existing conditions, but also have stronger competitive abilities over other species for a given period of time before they are replaced by other species..

island biogeography: Refers to the theory that species richness on islands is dependent on island size and distance from the mainland.

late successional species: Long-lived species that grow slowly and eventually dominate over middle successional species in a community undergoing succession.

middle successional species: Species that take over after early successional species and live longer and grow more slowly.

primary succession: The establishment of a community in a an where none existed before.

secondary succession: The re-establisment of the same or a different community in an area where a disturbance has occurred.

sere: A successional stage.

species equilibrium: When species richness in a community remains constant through time because immigration and extinction rates are equal.

tolerance model: A model for succession where early, middle, and late successional species are mixed in each sere, but certain species tolerate existing condition more than others and therefore dominate until conditions change and other species take over.

vagility: The ability to disperse.