Stages Of Succession in a Xerosere

Asra, Christine, Haruka, Nicole and Sabrina

Stage 1 Bare, inorganic a-biotic surface

becomes available for colonization › Pioneers: typically r-selected species

Stage 2 Stage 2 colonization: Pioneers

colonize the area first. › Simple soil starts from windblown dust

and mineral particles.

Stage 3 Stage 3 establishment: Species diversity

increases. Invertebrate species begin to visit and live in the soil, increasing organic material content and water-holding capacity. › Weathering enriches soil with nutrients.

Stage 4 Stage 4 competition: Microclimate continues to change as

new species colonize. Larger plants increase cover and provide shelter, enabling K-selected species to become established. › Temperatures, sun and wind are less extreme› Earlier pioneer r-species are unable to compete with K-

species for space, nutrients or light and are lost from the community.

› There is a decrease in r-species due to competition because of improved conditions for k-species.

Stage 5 Stage 5 stabilization:

› Complex food webs develop.› Fewer new species› K-species have longer life cycles and delayed

reproduction which attributes to stabilization.

Stage 6 Climax:

› Stable community/state of dynamic equilibrium

› Climatic climax community: Maximum possible development reached that

environmental conditions allow.

Amount Of Mineral Content• As the new stages occur, the amount of organisms increase which in turn increase the amount of mineral content in the environment.

Speed of Mineral CyclingThe storage spaces at the beginning of succession are smaller, so mineral cycling is generally faster. As the storage spaces become larger, the minerals take longer to cycle through, so the speed of cycling decreases.

Net Productivity Stage 0- Starts with no net productivity because there is only bare rockStage 1- As the number of organisms increase, there is an increase on net productivityStage 3- As the number of organisms increase even more, more respiration occurs, so the net productivity decreases, because more energy is being respired away.Stage 5- There is a limit to the number of organisms able to live in one ecosystem, thus the net productivity stabilizes after reaching an optimum number of organisms, thus constant respiration

Gross ProductivityStage 0- Starts with no gross productivity because there is only bare rockStage 1- As the number of organisms increase, there is an increase on gross productivityStage 5- The ecosystem has reached a point of saturation in gross productivity, and productivity does not increase nor decrease significantly over time

Diversity

•Starts with no diversity because there is only bare rock•The diversity of R-Strategists increase quicker than the diversity of K-Strategists•As the diversity of r-strategists increase, there is also an increase in the diversity of K-Strategists•The diversity of K-Strategists increase, and start to consume the R-Strategists, thus lessening the diversity of the R-Strategists•Levels out eventually, as everything stablizes

Hydrosere

AC, Chris, Tae Wan, Lucas, Michael, Ryuya, Anil and Fausti

Bare

Bare, inorganic Surface:It is a mostly lifeless environment. The deep waters created by the lack of sediments cause a lack of light in the environment, which leads to no rooted plants being present. As plants photosynthesize to create oxygen needed for maintaining life, this environment can not support many organisms. The soil is nutrient poor, leading to less life being present. Any life present is mostly r-selected species, which have short life cycles, small size, rapid growth, and the production of many off springs. IN the case of this environment they are mostly micro-organisms and phytoplankton.

Stage 1

Stage 1: Phytoplankton stage Occurs when dirt and soil sediments settle on the bottom surface – making it possible for simple pioneers to colonize and prosper. These sediments come from spores that are carried by the air to the body of water.

Stage 2&3

Seral Stage 2&3:This is a stage where vegetation in the deep freshwater. Grass and weeds start to grow, which starts depositing sediments on the bottom floor of the deep freshwater. As the hydrosere’s stages approach stage 3, weeds and grasses start to grow more rapidly and it results to more silt stacking up on top of each other.

SERAL STAGE 4: STABILIZATION

Fewer species inhabit as plants that have et their grown grow out as new species get pushed out. Complex food webs develop as K-selected species inhabit the waters.

Stage 4

SERAL CLIMAX

-Final Seral stage or climax community which is at a steady state- Dynamic equilibrium- It is the maximum possible development a community can reach under prevailing environmental conditions. - It is called a climatic climax community

Stage 5