Succession and management - Ecological Applications: Toward a Sustainable World - page 214

8 Succession and management

Succession is the relatively predictable sequence of change in community composition that occurs after a dis-
turbance: it is pointless to plan our harvests, restoration, biosecurity or conservation projects on the assumption
of constant conditions when very often the reality is disturbance, succession and constant change.

Chapter contents
8.1 Introduction 203

8.2 Managing succession for restoration 206

8.2.1 Restoration timetables for plants 206

8.2.2 Restoration timetable for animals 208

8.2.3 Invoking the theory of competition-colonization trade-offs 209

8.2.4 Invoking successional-niche theory 209

8.2.5 Invoking facilitation theory 210

8.2.6 Invoking enemy-interaction theory 215

8.3 Managing succession for harvesting 216

8.3.1 Benzoin 'gardening' in Sumatra 216

8.3.2 Aboriginal burning enhances harvests 217

8.4 Using succession to control invasions 219

8.4.1 Grassland 219

8.4.2 Forest 220

8.5 Managing succession for species conservation 221

8.5.1 When early succession matters most - a hare-restoring formula for lynx 221

8.5.2 Enforcing a successional mosaic - fi rst aid for butterfl ies 222

8.5.3 When late succession matters most - range fi nding for tropical birds 223

8.5.4 Controlling succession in an invader-dominated community 223

8.5.5 Nursing a valued plant back to cultural health 224

Key concepts
In this chapter you will
recognize that succession may be driven by external physical change (allogenic) or by internal
species interactions (autogenic) prompted by disturbance
understand that the shift from pioneer to mid- to late-successional plant communities is mediated
by species traits - notably colonizing ability, competitive status, facilitative power, and vulnera-
bility to herbivores
realize that a succession that appears to have reached a climax is, however, usually a mosaic of
early-successional patches within a late-successional matrix

202