Abstract
The established view of ecological succession is that, following a disturbance, several assemblages of species progressively occupy a site, each giving way to its successor until a community finally develops which is able to reproduce itself indefinitely. Implicit in this view is the assumption that each suite of species modifies the site conditions so that they become less suitable for its own persistence and more suitable for its successor, and the assumption that only the final community is at equilibrium with the prevailing environment. These ideas owe their origin largely to Clements (1916, 1936) who viewed the community as a kind of super-organism, and succession as a form of ontogeny. They are entrenched to various degrees in the ecological literature and have been supported by many authors (see, for example, Golley 1977).
We wish to thank A.M. Gill, A.N. Gillison and B.R. Trenbath for their critical reading of draft manuscripts, and P.M. Cochrane for assistance with many aspects of manuscript preparation.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Ashton, D.H. 1956. Studies on the autecology of Eucalyptus regnans F.v.M. Ph. D. Thesis, University of Melbourne, unpublished.
Cattelino, P.J., I.R. Noble, R.O. Slatyer & S.R. Kessell. 1979. Predicting the multiple pathways of plant succession. Environ. Manage. 3: 41–50.
Clements, F.E. 1916. Plant succession. Carnegie Inst. Washington, Publ. 242. 512 pp.
Clements, F.E. 1936. Nature and structure of the climax. J. Ecol. 24: 252–284.
Connell, J.H. & R.O. Slatyer. 1977. Mechanisms of succession in natural communities and their role in community stability and organization. Amer. Nat. III: 1119–1144.
Drury, W.H. & I.C.T. Nisbet. 1973. Succession. J. Arnold Arboretum 54: 331–368.
Egler, F.E. 1954. Vegetation science concepts, I. Initial floristic composition—a factor in old-field vegetation development. Vegetatio 4: 412–417.
Forcier, L.K. 1975. Reproductive strategies and the co-occurrence of climax tree species. Science 189: 808–809.
Gilbert, J.M. 1959. Forest succession in the Florentine Valley, Tasmania. Pap. Roy. Soc. Tas. 93: 129–151.
Gill, A.M. 1975. Fire and the Australian flora: A review. Aust. For. 38: 4–25.
Gleason, H.A. 1926. The individualistic concept of the plant association. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 53, 7–26.
Golley, F.B. (ed.) 1977. Benchmark Papers in Ecology 15. Ecological Succession. Dowden, Hutchinson amp; Ross, Inc., Pennsylvania. 375 pp.
Harper, J.L. 1977. Population biology of plants. Academic Press, London. 892 pp.
Horn, H.S. 1976. Succession. In: R.M. May (ed.), Theoretical Ecology: Principles and Applications, p. 187–204. Blackwell, Oxford.
Howard, T.M. 1973. Studies on the ecology of Nothofagus cunninghamii Oerst., 1. Natural regeneration on the Mt. Donna Buang massif, Victoria. Aust. J. Bot. 21: 67–78.
Jackson, W.D. 1968. Fire, air, watef and earth—an elemental ecology of Tasmania. Proc. Ecol. Soc. Aust. 3: 9–16.
Jarrett, P.H., & A.H.K. Petrie. 1929. The vegetation of Black’s Spur region, II. Pyric succession. J. Ecol. 17: 249–281.
Kessell, S.R. 1979. Gradient Modeling. Springer-Verlag, New York. 320 pp.
Lyon, L.J. & P.F. Stickney. 1977. Early vegetational succession following large northern Rocky Mountain wildfires. Proc. Tall Timbers Fire Ecol. Conf. 14: 355–375.
Naveh, Z. 1975. The evolutionary significance of fire in the Mediterranean region. Vegetatio 29: 199–208.
Noble, I.R. & R.O. Slatyer. 1977. Post fire succession of plants in Mediterranean ecosystems. In: H.A. Mooney & C.E. Conrad (eds.), Proc. Symp. Environmental Consequences of Fire and Fuel Management in Mediterranean Ecosystems, pp. 27–36. U.S.D.A. Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. WO-3.
Noble, I.R. & R.O. Slatyer. 1978. The effect of disturbances on plant succession. Proc. Ecol. Soc. Aust. 10: 135–145.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1980 Dr. W. Junk bv Publishers, The Hague
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Noble, I.R., Slatyer, R.O. (1980). The Use of Vital Attributes to Predict Successional Changes in Plant Communities Subject to Recurrent Disturbances. In: van der Maarel, E. (eds) Succession. Advances in vegetation science, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9200-9_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9200-9_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-009-9202-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-9200-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive