5.1 Primary Succession

Question 1

What is Primary Succession?

Answer 1

A primary succession starts in newly formed habitats where there has never been a community before.
Can occur on a bare rock and in open water.

Question 2

Pioneer Phase

Answer 2

1. The first organisms to colonise bare rock are lichens and algae (pioneer species).
   - These are the only species that can cope with the extremes of temperature and lack of soil, water and nutrients.

Question 3

What do the Pioneer species do?

Answer 3

Pioneers start to break up the rock surface, and accumulate the broken up rock as the beginning of soil.
They change the conditions in the habitat just to make them suitable for other species’.

Question 4

Succession continues

Answer 4

Mosses build up more organic matter in the soil=can hold water.
Development of soil enables seeds of small, shallow rooted plants to establish.
Conditions in habitat improve, seeds from larger, taller plants appear.

Question 5

When plants begin to appear and stay what do they begin to do?

Answer 5

Compete with the plants already present in the habitat + replace existing community.

Question 6

What does a community dominated by trees mean?

Answer 6

A community dominated by tress is reached= stable climax community

Question 7

What does a Climax community depend on?

Answer 7

Climax community depends on the environmental conditions such as (climate, the soil + which species are available).

Question 8

What type of species can be produced as a result of Succession

Answer 8

Dominant species=largest and/or most abundant plant species in the community.

Question 9

What happens as succession progresses?

Answer 9

As succession progress=the number of niches increases + number of species present.