Study Questions for Disturbance & Succession

1.       Acquaint yourself with the variety of natural and human disturbances of communities.

2.       What is the difference between resistant and resilient communities?

3.       Describe 3 aspects of disturbances that are important to consider in evaluating the effect of a disturbance on natural ecosystems / landscapes.

4.       Why does the time frame for community recovery from disturbance vary so much in the examples provided from your book (glaciation: 1500 years; old fields 150 years; rocky intertidal: 2 years; streams: 3 months)?

5.       Review the concepts of succession, primary succession, secondary succession and the three general stages of succession.  What types of life history strategies (R, C, or S) would be most likely found in these stages of succession? Why?

6.       Why is dispersal such an important factor in primary succession?

7.       Describe how the facilitation, tolerance and inhibition models of succession would each occur in succession from the open lava flows on Mount St. Helens to a mature forest 800 years from now.