Essay on The Ecological Succession in a Pond and on a Bare Rock !
One of the classical studies of ecological succession was made on the shores of Lake Michigan as the lake has become smaller it has left successively younger sand dunes, and one can study the stages in ecological succession as one goes away from the lake.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The youngest dunes nearest the lake have only grasses and insects; the next older ones have shrubs such as cottonwoods, then evergreens and finally there is a beech-maple climax community, with deep rich soil full of earthworms and snails.
As the, lake retreated it also left a series of ponds. Your gest of these ponds contain little rooted vegetation and lots of bassand blue-gills. Latter the ponds become chocked with vegetation and smaller in size as the basins fill. Finally the ponds become marshes and the marsher get transformed into a meadow with further addition of soil.
image source: fpnaturalist.files.wordpress.com
Eventually, an aquatic plant community of the pond becomes transformed into a terrestrial forest community. Further, in this case of ecological succession, the aquatic animal community gets replaced in an orderly manner from purely fresh-water forms through marsh inhabitants and meadow grazers to terrestrial dwelling forms.
Another dramatic example of community succession began in August 7, 1883. When a volcanic explosion occurred on the Indonesian island Krakatau, causing part of the island to disappear the remainder was covered with hot volcanic debris to a depth of 60 meters and all life was obliterated.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
A year later some grass and a single spider were found. By 1908, 202 species of animals had taken up abode on the island. This increased to 621 species by 1919 and to 880 species by 1934, when there was a young forest on one part of the island.