You visit the site the following year (we will call this “year 2”)and find that

Question

You visit the site the following year (we will call this “year 2”)and find that a massive rock slide from a cliff above has swept down the slope, removing all the plants and soil from what used to be this plant community. You are disappointed because you have a really nice data set on plant species richness and abundance of this plant community going back over 20 years. However, you take solace in the fact that a huge pile of rock, soil and plant remains now sit at the bottom of the slope, right where some campsite people had built a semi-permanent campsite about 5 years ago. The campsite people were usually there when you conducted your annual sampling, and they would leave broken bottles of cheap liquor around your vehicle, played bad music really loud, and randomly shoot guns in the air, which made it hard for you to focus on plant sampling. You return the next year and find that the site of your former plant community contains 2 plant species (a forb and a grass) growing on the gravel slope. This new current plant community would represent _____ at this site.

a. the pioneer community

b. the climax community

c. an early- to mid-successional stage community (but not pioneer)

Explanation / Answer

1) The answer shall be option A

Please read below paragraphs for better understanding

Forest vegetation changes over time. We call the process of these changes succession. A disturbance event will occur within a forest to initiate succession. A disturbance is any event that causes significant changes in plant and/or soil components of the forest system. These events include fire, harvesting, landslides, volcanism, windstorms, etc.

A disturbance will result in the removal (complete or partial) of the dominant plants (e.g., trees). After disturbance, the first plants to recolonize a disturbed site are called pioneer species and include grasses, forbs (herbaceous vegetation), shrubs and some tree species such as Red Alder

In the early stages of succession, disturbed areas are quickly colonized by “pioneer” plant species. These pioneer plant species thrive in disturbed areas.

By the mid successional stages, the forest is dominated mostly by well-developed full-canopied trees, numerous shrub species, and a somewhat diverse developing plant understory

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