What type of change occurred in the ecosystems affected by the 1988 Yellowstone Park fires: primary succession, secondary succession, a climax community, or species extinction?
Biology · High School · Mon Jan 18 2021
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- The type of change that occurred in the ecosystems affected by the 1988 Yellowstone Park fires is best described as secondary succession.
- Secondary succession happens in areas where a disturbance, such as a fire, clears an ecosystem but doesn't destroy the soil. In Yellowstone, the fires burned the vegetation but left the soil relatively intact. This allowed for the regrowth of the original plant and animal communities over time.
- Secondary succession occurs in an ecosystem where an existing community has been partially or completely disrupted by disturbances such as fires, floods, or human activities, but the soil and some organisms remain intact. In the case of the Yellowstone Park fires, the intense wildfires destroyed vegetation and altered the landscape significantly. However, they did not destroy the soil completely, allowing for the potential regrowth and reestablishment of plant and animal communities.