What do you see below?

LAVA (a newly-formed volcanic island) What do you see below? LAVA (a newly-formed volcanic island)

Imagine this being a new volcanic island formed in the ocean.

Imagine this being a new volcanic island formed in the ocean. What can survive here with what you see?

Can life be sustained here with the resources you can see?

Can life be sustained here with the resources you can see? Definitely not yet!

What is the most basic need missing for this new land mass?

What is the most basic need missing for this new land mass? HINT What has to be the first organisms to appear?

What has to be the first organisms to appear? AUTOTROPHS (PRODUCERS) to provide energy!

So, what is the most basic need missing for producers to live here?

SOIL!

SOIL? How in the world is soil going to develop in a place where the only thing present is…. VOLCANIC ROCK?

SUCCESSION Succession is a series of predictable and sequential changes that an area undergoes on the way to becoming a stable community/ecosystem.

PRIMARY SUCCESSION If a new area develops in a place where no soil has ever existed, the type of succession that will follow is called PRIMARY SUCCESSION.

PRIMARY SUCCESSION – what it looks like The first organisms to inhabit the area are known as the…. PIONEER SPECIES.

PIONEER SPECIES

A lichen is a symbiotic organism, made up of a fungus and an alga. LICHENS A lichen is a symbiotic organism, made up of a fungus and an alga. It is a great example of mutualism, although some consider it to be parasitism.

LICHENS

LICHENS

LICHENS

Lichens can grow on bare rock, and help to break rock apart. When lichens die, they decompose and form nutrient-rich soil for other possible plant life to use.

PRIMARY SUCCESSION – what it looks like

PRIMARY SUCCESSION – what it looks like Once plant life starts to grow, you have a steady supply of energy (producers) to attract animal life (consumers) to the area.

Eventually you will end up with a stable environment called a….

Eventually you will end up with a stable environment called a…. CLIMAX COMMUNTIY

SECONDARY SUCCESSION If an ecosystem/community is destroyed WITHOUT destroying the soil, the resulting series of changes is called….. SECONDARY SUCCESSION.

Like with a forest fire; soil is still intact SECONDARY SUCCESSION Like with a forest fire; soil is still intact

SECONDARY SUCCESSION Many plants will re-grow from their roots that were protected by the soil. Some plants have even adapted to the point that their seeds will only germinate (sprout) after the intense heat of a forest fire.