Abstract

Ecologists have studied plant succession for over a hundred years, yet our understanding of the nature of this process is incomplete, particularly in relation to its response to new human perturbations and the need to manipulate it during ecological restoration. We demonstrate how plant succession can be understood better when it is placed in the broadest possible temporal context. We further show how plant succession can be central to the development of a framework that integrates a spectrum of ecological processes, which occur over time scales ranging from seconds to millions of years. This novel framework helps us understand the impacts of human perturbations on successional trajectories, ecosystem recovery, and global environmental change.

Keywords

global change; hierarchical approach; plant-soil feedbacks; retrogression; temporal scales

Published in

Trends in ecology & evolution
2014, Volume: 29, number: 9, pages: 504-510

SLU Authors

• Wardle, David

  • Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2014.07.002

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/60149