Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Key mechanisms shaping plant succession are dynamic over time

  • Research Briefing
  • Published:

From Nature Plants

View current issue Submit your manuscript

  • 1 Altmetric

The mechanisms shaping plant succession after glacier retreat are dynamic. Compositional dissimilarity between communities decreases over time, accompanied by a shift in the relative contribution of taxa addition versus replacement. Taxa addition prevailed in early communities, whereas replacement became more important after 50 years of succession.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1: Community changes over plant succession following glacier retreat.

References

  1. Connell, J. H. & Slatyer, R. O. Mechanisms of succession in natural communities and their role in community stability and organization. Am. Nat. 111, 1119–1144 (1977). This paper represents pioneering work that developed three models to describe succession in natural communities.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Pulsford, S. A., Lindenmayer, D. B. & Driscoll, D. A. A succession of theories: purging redundancy from disturbance theory. Biol. Rev. 91, 148–167 (2016). A Review article that presents an overview of the concepts describing succession.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Ficetola, G. F. et al. Dynamics of ecological communities following current retreat of glaciers. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 52, 405–426 (2021). A Review article of the dynamics of communities after glacier retreat.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Guerrieri, A. et al. Metabarcoding data reveal vertical multitaxa variation in topsoil communities during the colonization of deglaciated forelands. Mol. Ecol. 32, 6304–6319 (2023). This paper reports the standardized eDNA sampling protocol used here. From DNA collection, extraction and amplification to bioinformatic analyses.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Hanusch, M., He, X., Ruiz-Hernández, V. & Junker, R. R. Succession comprises a sequence of threshold-induced community assembly processes towards multidiversity. Commun. Biol. 5, 424 (2022). This paper reports that stochastic processes are replaced by rather deterministic processes over succession.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This is a summary of: Cantera, I. et al. The importance of species addition ‘versus’ replacement varies over succession in plant communities after glacier retreat. Nat. Plants https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-023-01609-4 (2024).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Key mechanisms shaping plant succession are dynamic over time. Nat. Plants 10, 202–203 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-023-01610-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-023-01610-x

  • Springer Nature Limited

Search

Navigation