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In scientific ecology, climax community or climatic climax community is a historic term for a community of plants, animals, and fungi which, through the process of ecological succession in the development of vegetation in an area over time, have reached a steady state. This equilibrium was thought to occur because the climax community is ...
The relationship between diversity and stability has been widely studied. [4] [21] Diversity can enhance the stability of ecosystem functions at various ecological scales. [22] For example, genetic diversity can enhance resistance to environmental perturbations. [23] At the community level, the structure of food webs can affect stability.
This idea has been largely abandoned by modern ecologists in favor of nonequilibrium ideas of ecosystems dynamics. Most natural ecosystems experience disturbance at a rate that makes a "climax" community unattainable. Climate change often occurs at a rate and frequency sufficient to prevent arrival at a climax state.
The idea of a climax species has been criticized in recent ecological literature. [9] Any assessment of successional states depends on assumptions about the natural fire regime. But the idea of a dominant species is still widely used in silvicultural programs and California Department of Forestry literature. [citation needed]
This is the climax community, defined as the point where a plant succession does not develop any further because it has reached equilibrium with the environment, in particular the climate. The later stages of a psammosere appear when the sand stops moving due to lower wind speeds.
Scientists have identified what could potentially be the “deepest known blue hole” in the world, extending so far down that the bottom has not yet been reached.
Humans may have already reached peak life span, new research suggests. Researchers found that since 1990, the average lifespan has only risen 6.5 years. Experts explain the findings.
Clements indicated that a site's climax community would reflect local climate. He conceptualized the climax community as a "superorganism" that followed a defined developmental sequence. [2] Early ecological succession theory maintained that the directional shifts from one stage of succession to the next were induced by the plants themselves. [1]