| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Adventitious roots | roots that develop from stems or other plant parts that are near the soil surface or get buried by soil due to floods or other depositional events |
| Climax | the idealized (and often unrealized or unrealistic) end point of succession |
| Disturbance | a discrete and relatively rapid physical or biological event that disrupts an ecosystem, community, or population structure and changes resources, substrate availability, or the physical environment |
| Facilitation | the process by which the establishment of one species changes the environment and allows the subsequent establishment of other species |
| Inhibition model | a model of succession that is based upon the premise that the first species that arrive following disturbance come to dominate the site and competitively inhibit the establishment of later arriving species |
| Pneumatophores | elongated vertical root structures that rise above water saturated soils and the level of standing water and allow roots to obtain oxygen |
| Primary succession | occurs when a previously lifeless environment is first colonized by plants and animals |
| Random model | a model of succession that suggests that the patterns of species abundance that occur following a disturbance are highly variable and largely influenced by the random chance dispersal and establishment of post disturbance colonizers |
| Rhizomes | horizontal root structures typical of many grasses and other plants such as cattails |
| Riparian forests | forests found along rivers and streams or places with high soil moisture |
| Scarification | a physical or biological event that some seeds must undergo prior to germination |
| Secondary succession | occurs when an existing ecosystem recovers from a disturbance such as fire or flood |
| Sere | an idealized or typical set of successional states that occurs in an ecosystem following a disturbance |
| Serotinous cones | the cones of certain species of conifers that remain closed and hold viable seeds. The seeds are released following disturbances such as fires which kill the parent trees and/or heat the cones |
| Succession | the changes in the physical and biological conditions of an ecosystem that follow disturbances |
| Tolerance model | a model of succession that assumes that the species that will dominate the ecosystem following a disturbance are all established very quickly following the disturbance. All species can tolerate the physical and biological conditions that occus after the disturbance. As time progresses some species disappear because they cannot tolerate the environment of later successional stages |
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