Podcast Interview Answer #5: How Does a Forest Fire Show the Basics of Ecological Succession?

Podcast Interview Answer #5: How Does a Forest Fire Show the Basics of Ecological Succession?

"Ecological succession is the process of gradual change in a community over time. It is based on order that can predict the sense of a new development in any habitat. In some ways, nothing can remain the same except adapting to change itself." 

Excerpt: Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

Anybody who works side by side with nature understands that Ecological Succession is a force of nature.

Anybody who tills a piece of ground and plans to grow a garden will understand this force of nature very well. So, you plant your seeds and soon enough the young bean plants emerge with their bright open leaves eager for nutrients, water and open dirt to grow toward their bountiful vegetable. 

Now, within the same short time, other plants called weeds will start to compete for nutrients and space. In fact, these weeds are such avid competitors, if left unattended, may easily take over the seedling beets. In fact, the garden will quickly turn into a robust productive weed patch overcoming the weaker yet-to-be established beets. A  gardener's only course of action is to spend a great deal of time and energy weeding the garden to try and tame this inherent energy or force of ecological succession.

There seems to be an inherent law in nature that open soil will not stay bare for too long. Nature will take her hand and seed it prolifically but always within a predictable  organization that allows for primary growth to support secondary development.

Succession is nature’s process to adapt to whatever conditions befall it … to continue to live, grow and gradually change the habitat to adapt to these new conditions. The species that adapt better will exist longer. 

Again, with Nature’s infinite organization, a forest fire can best show how a disaster is followed by gradual change based on predictable development.

First, different grasses and weeds appear starting the microbial communities and nutrient      capture. 

Soon, the spectacular fireweed or great willow herb arrives with amazing adaptations to      survive as a pioneer in disturbed areas.

• Its seeds can lie dormant for many years, awaiting the warmth necessary for germination. 
• It can rapidly spread its rhizomes or creeping roots that grow a few inches horizontally underground from buds that produce new shoots growing upwards. 
• It can grow 1 to 6 feet, even as tall as 9 feet with tapers of flowers. 
• Pink colored flowers produce seeds as fine wispy tufts for easy wind dispersal. 
• Soon enough, roots and seeds proliferate everywhere accumulating more humus. 
• As it grows, it is a supermarket for insects, birds and animals.  Young shoots are especially tasty to rabbits, sheep and deer.  Muskrats, chipmunks and even marmots, moose, elk make a diet. 
• It is especially beneficial to butterflies who feed from its nectar and pollen during the day, and the moths at night. 
• A variety of bees drink the early spring nectar to make honey and help to pollinate the plant further. It can also attract hummingbirds and other birds to feed on the bugs.

A few years later they are replaced by bushes and trees like the aspen, white birch, and jack pine. More nutrients are released into the soil, competing species are overgrown and eliminated as the amount of sunlight varies.

 

            In other words, a fully functioning ecosystem is alive and well. 

In summary, ecological succession is the process of change in the species of an ecological community over time. It begins with a  few pioneering plants and animals and develops into a stable or self-perpetuating community. 

  

Several key words emerge when considering how to change in nature’s way … adaptations, whole society, diversity, balance, maturity and survival. The consequence of change or adaptation is how organisms impact their own environment, often as a symbiotic relationship. Change is never black and white for immediate gratification. Between any two extremes, there is gradual change with function as purpose and more tolerance. 

Two other interesting facts can apply to forest fires and ecological succession:

1. Climate change can play a major role in which kind of plants or trees will return to the landscape. Even years later, higher temperatures and decreased precipitation can compromise a forest’s chances of full recovery.
2. Forest fires can be considered a natural and necessary part of the ecosystem. It is an opportunity to remove clutter like dead trees, old logs, dense undergrowth, and hardened decayed plant matter to return as ashes and add more nutrients to make more fertile soil for new plants.

Back on the farm, I remember my father, doing controlled burns on the hay fields as a way to remove old decayed grass to increase soil fertility. 

In fact, I am so impressed by nature's ecological succession and what it can teach humanity's social succession, I wrote an e-book called 

The Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch ... a love story for all ages who care about family, community and environment.

Questions and comments are always welcome and important.

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

1 833 471 4661 (please note a time for a call-back)

https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

"Succession involves the whole community. You have seen it in slow action with plants in the destruction of the forest fire. The first plants appear along with humus, micro-organisms, and fungi followed by insects and birds. As plants change, different animals will appear to feed;  first the plant eaters, then the meat eaters.  Trees start to grow, changing the physical and nutrient environment again for more variety of species." 

excerpt from Ecological Succession of Birchum Birchum 

Also available as Kindle edition.

..FIREWEED: magnificent all-purpose plant pioneer