For example, early colonizers like grasses might add nutrients to the soil, whereas later ones like shrubs and trees might create cover and shade. Succession stops temporarily when a “climax” ...

end-stage of succession (Clements 1936). For Clements, climax communities were the assemblage of characteristic plants that define an ecosystem, such as tall grasses in a prairie, or mature trees ...

For an example of succession, think of a severe forest fire that kills many trees. What was once a closed canopy forest with very little light reaching the ground is now a very open and bright place.

What begins as a simple challenge to identify every member on the family tree quickly turns into a subtle statement on how this one family, the descendants of a Logan Roy-eque business mogul ...

Nyeri, Kenya: To many people, the falling of a tree is a routine and natural occurrence. But to some villagers in Nyeri, when the fallen tree happens to be the sacred mugumo (Fig tree), then it ...