What does «sucesión ecológica» mean in Spanish?
- Ecological succession, a fundamental concept in ecology, refers to more or less predictable and orderly changes in the composition or structure of an ecological community. Succession can be initiated either by the formation of a new, unoccupied habitat (e.g., a lava flow or a severe landslide) or by some form of disturbance (e.g., fire, high winds, logging) of an existing community. The former is often referred to as primary succession, the latter as secondary succession. The trajectory of ecological change may be influenced by site conditions, by the interactions of the species present, and by more stochastic factors such as the availability of colonists or seeds, or weather conditions at the time of disturbance. Some of these factors contribute to the predictability of successional dynamics; others add more probabilistic elements. In general, communities in early succession will be dominated by fast-growing, well-dispersed species (opportunistic, fugitive, or r-selected life histories). As succession progresses, these species will tend to be replaced by more competitive (k-selected) species. Trends in ecosystem and community properties in succession have been suggested, but few appear to be general. For example, species diversity almost necessarily increases during early succession as new species arrive, but may decline in later succession as competition eliminates opportunistic species and leads to the dominance of locally superior competitors. Net primary productivity, biomass, and trophic level properties show variable patterns throughout succession, depending on the particular system and site.