The Difference Between Primary and Secondary Succession of the Soil

Primary succession is the colonization of new sites by communities of organisms. It occurs every after the devastating events that wiped out the organisms that lived in the area or with the creation of a new habitat.

The sample picture shows the Primary succession after a volcanic eruption. When the lava flows, it destroys everything in its path but when the lava becomes cool it forms new land. At first the new land will be with nothing living in the area. After a few days, there will be a simple organism that will colonize the new land. Those organisms are known as the Pioneer species. The typical pioneer species include simple lichens, algae, and fungi. These organisms begin to break down the resources in the environment and making it suitable. The Vascular plants is one of the complex species. These species carry their life process. They produce waste and some just die that leads to the formation of the organic material that will become soil. Once the small layer of soil takes place on top of the lava flow, variety of life will begin to increase quickly. The pioneer plants will be crowded by the complex plants. Such as grass that can live in a thin layer of the new formatted soil.

The Secondary succession takes place when a disturbance did not eliminate all life and nutrients from the environment. Although the fire, flooding and other disturbance brings visible ruin to a landscape, killed many plants and animals and set back the biological community to an earlier stage, habitat will not be lifeless because the soil retains the nutrients and seeds that have been set down before the disturbance occurred. The seeds that has been buried can sprout shortly after the effects of the disturbance pass, and some of it may have greater success from reduced competition and reduced shading. Some of the species can be adapted to the frequent passage of a particular disturbance.

This type of succession follows a major disturbance, such as fire or a flood. There is a similarity to the two types of ecological succession; however, the Primary succession begins on a barren surface whereas secondary succession begins in environments that possess soil.