Secondary Forest Succession on the North Carolina Piedmont

Abstract

In 1916 F. E. Clements outlined a set of general principles that he felt described not only the events but also the mechanisms of succession. In Clements’ view, succession was a directional, predictable process of community change driven by the biotic reactions of dominant species converging onto some stable community composition and structure that was ultimately determined by the climate. The concept of the monoclimax or climatic climax was judged to be less than useful by a few ecologists soon after its exposition (DuRietz 1930; Gleason 1917; Tansley 1920) and by the majority of ecologists by the 1950s and 1960s. However, many of the other tenets of this model were, until recently, widely accepted. Indeed, Odum’s (1969) “strategy of ecosystem development” presupposes most of Clements’ doctrines.