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Succession: Changing Land, Changing Wildlife

To an ecologist, the term succession refers to the predictable changes that occur in the plants and animals that live in an area over time. See how these changes affect an abandoned Michigan farm field. (text version)

Originally, this farm field was a deep forest filled with towering beech and maple trees.

Different regions of the world support different kinds of climax communities, including deserts, prairies, and rainforests.

Biologists use this understanding of succession to manage wildlife populations. The endangered Kirtland's warbler, for example, will only nest in stands of young jack pine trees. Periodic wildfires once maintained this habitat, but when humans suppressed fires, Kirtland's warblers had nowhere to nest and nearly became extinct. Today, in Kirtland's warbler habitat areas, managers use clearcutting and prescribed burning to prevent succession from occurring—to maintain the young jack pine habitat that the warblers and other kinds of wildlife need to survive.