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The term pioneer species is also used to refer to the first species, usually plants, to return to an area after disturbance as part of the process of secondary succession. Disturbances may include floods, tornadoes, forest fires, deforestation, or clearing by other means. [18] Pioneer species tend to be fast-growing, shade-intolerant, and tend ...
One example of primary succession takes place after a volcano has erupted. The lava flows into the ocean and hardens into new land. The resulting barren land is first colonized by pioneer organisms, like algae, which pave the way for later, less hardy plants, such as hardwood trees, by facilitating pedogenesis, especially through the biotic acceleration of weathering and the addition of ...
A seral community is the name given to each group of plants within the succession. A primary succession describes those plant communities that occupy a site that has not previously been vegetated. These can also be described as the pioneer community. Computer modeling is sometimes used to evaluate likely succession stages in a seral community. [2]
An example of pioneer species, in forests of northeastern North America are Betula papyrifera (White birch) and Prunus serotina (Black cherry), that are particularly well-adapted to exploit large gaps in forest canopies, but are intolerant of shade and are eventually replaced by other shade-tolerant species in the absence of disturbances that ...
Lichens are pioneer species, among the first living things to grow on bare rock or areas denuded of life by a disaster. [4] Lichens may have to compete with plants for access to sunlight, but because of their small size and slow growth, they thrive in places where higher plants have difficulty growing.
In a psammosere, the organisms closest to the sea will be pioneer species: [5] halophytes (salt-tolerant species) such as littoral algae and glasswort, with marram grass stabilising the dunes. Progressing inland, many characteristics of the ground change which helps determine the natural succession of the dunes.
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The giant saguaro cactus, in this respect, can only survive in the shade of other plants (or in some cases rocks) – pioneer species facilitate their existence by providing shade. [8] (The argument has also been made that this type of interaction is exemplary of the tolerance model; see below). [8] 2. Tolerance Model