Disturbance influences diversity and composition

Ecological Succession is the change in the composition of species over time, which can be very unpredictable.

Primary Succession: plants and animals invade a region that has never supported living things

Secondary Succession: when an existing community has been destroyed by a damaging event.

California Wildfire in Fall 2007

Biodiversity: the diversity of species in a community, which is also determined by size and geographic location.