Facilitation is the most common mechanism proposed to explain succession. This occurs when one species, or a group of species, colonizes a disturbed area, and subsequently alters the environment ...

Finally, Connell & Slatyer (1977) reformulated many of the models and ideas about succession. They presented three models that described mechanisms and hypotheses about how succession proceeded.

These mechanisms are termed 'niche succession', whereby one stem cell of the many located within each gland displaces all of its neighbors to repopulate the entire stem cell compartment and then ...