MARE 194

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MARE 194

• Lecture 11---Reef Formation Succession

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Picking Up Where We Left Off

• Volcanoes have erupted
• Seamounts have turned into new islands
• What happens next?
• Eruptions DISTURBANCE
• Lava Fields (above/below water) NEW SUBSTRATE

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• SUCCESSION DISTURBANCE
• Succession is community change over time,
  initiated after a disturbance
• Disturbance is any type of biomass removal
• (natural or anthropogenic)

Follows
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Successionthe details

• SuccessionA series of regular, predictable
  changes in the structure of a community over
  time.
• Activities of organisms change their surroundings
  make the environment suitable for other kinds
  of organisms.
• Climax community Stable, long-lasting
  community, primarily determined by climate.

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Succession? 2 kinds

• Primary Succession Begins w/ bare mineral
  surfaces or water total lack of organisms
• lava flows, glaciers
• Secondary Succession Begins w/ disturbance of
  an existing ecosystem
• Much more commonly observed (except in Hawaii ?)
• fires, floods, hurricanes, anthropogenic
  clearing, abandoned agriculture

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• SUCCESSION IS A SEQUENCE
• Pioneer Stage (set the stage, temporary,
  Facilitation Species)
• Intermediate Seral Stage (Inhibition Species,
  perhaps)
• Later Seral Stage (Tolerance Species, perhaps)
• Climax Stage
• A B C D

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Classic Ecology ExampleTerrestrial Primary
Succession
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Succession doesnt always have to be in
sequential steps
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Coral Reef Succession
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Coral Reef Succession in Progress
Scientists have been able to observe this
phenomenom 1st hand
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Coral Reef Succession in Progress
New Lava Flow in Water
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Coral Reef Succession in Progress
No Coral Colonies, but diatomaceous slime
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Coral Reef Succession in Progress
Coral Colony well-established
PIONEER SPECIES
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Coral Reef Succession in Progress
Almost all Pocillopora meandrina begins
colonizing process?leads to more species
PIONEER SPECIES
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Coral Reef Succession in Progress
12 species of coral present 100 cover
FACILITATION MODEL
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Coral Reef Succession in Progress
Coverage primarily Porites compressa Porites
lobata
TOLERANCE MODEL
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Coral Reef Succession in Progress
Well developed, undisturbed?almost 100 Porites
compressa
CLIMAX COMMUNITY ?
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Coral Reef Succession Models