What are the importance of studying ecological sucession?

Question

What are the importance of studying ecological sucession?

Answer 1

it is very important. by stuying ecological succession we can predict what kind of ecosystem will take over once the previous ecosystem is gone. lets take a lake for example. every lake is filled with water from nearby mountains from melted snow, rain and other sources. as a lake ages, sediment and nutrients pour into it and begin to build up at the bottom. this makes the lake more shallow as hundreds or even thousands of years go by and eventually this is the biggest factor that will dry up a lake!! after a lake is dry, succession takes place: a meadow forms, plants begin to grow. in the next successsion, trees may grow. as the trees grow the meadow will become a forest!!!! the forest will bring a lot of ecological diversity!!! all this happened from a lake and this process happens in the course of thousands of years(which, in terms og nature, isnt a long time). also, this has been proven true. somewhere in africa in a mountain range(dont remember which one), on many of the mountains people can find seashells from ancient seas!! the seas dried up millions of years ago and succession occured.

On a personal note, i live near a big, beautiful lake. scientists know that our lake will eventually dry up and become a meadow someday (succession). thats why right now we're so careful to not let excessive nutrients and sediment to go into our lake.our city has been given so much money to protect our lake's clarity and quality. in other words, we are trying to slow down its aging process. we feel that our lake is very beautiful, valuable and we want many more generations to have the privilege to enjoy it.

Answer 2

Succession was seen as ecology's looking glass in to the future, that was in the 1970s when the discipline of ecology was still in its infancy. We have advanced our understanding of the principles of ecology a great deal since the hey day of 'invasion and succession', and we have learnt about how many factors affect the future of an ecosystem, and its subsequent complexity.

As a consequence, succession itself is a very theoretical field - not all lakes (to use the "ilovegreen"'s example) are caused by precipitation, and not all lakes will eventually silt up. The sea shells found in mountain ranges are caused by geological activity (there is sea salt in the Himalayas!) and NOT by silting up. Finally, the use of nutrients (fertiliser) in the fields surrounding lakes causes eutrophication of the water - a condition where algae and some plants flourish artificially and cause havoc with the ecosystem.

Of course, we can definitely argue that succession will occur as any ecosystem changes (which they all do eventually), but the accuracy of our predictions is somewhat limited.