Field Trip / concept of succession

1.  Find an example of succession in your neighborhood or a place nearby. See text for details on the concept of succession.

As we now know, that major natural disasters like a volcano eruptions,lightning fires and tornadoes can do a lot of damage to our earth. It can clear out a large populations of species and displace life.
There are also man made distraction of plant populations and animal habitats. This pictures show, that for a new and improved road for us to use, we must first clear out a large area of land for the construction of
such road.


We leave nothing on its path. The road must be perfect. We need room, to work and to drive our big machinery to perform such job for us.

It sure will be a great freeway!!!

We do reseed and try to make it all look like we did not disturbed anything, but the reality is, it will take years for even a small grasses to reestablish and look like before the construction.






 2.  Take 4 photos to illustrate what is happening. Describe what is happening.

Here are two small Juniper trees growing. It is taking them 5 years to get to this size. They are the seedlings from a big mature tree that have been cleared out "of the way" some 20 years ago.











This pine tree is a sneaky survivor. It found a great safe place to begin its life, hidden in a native bush. The Squirrel or a Blue Jay could have dropped the pine nut and here it is a new life!








This two example above, are results of a great process called secondary succession. This two had a better chance to reestablish, because there is plenty of native dirt/soil still available. In some cases, when there are no more dirt left, like after a  fire goes through the forest, burns all that living and the rains wash away all the remaining soil, we have bare rocks and nothing to regrow on, but.... we have a primary succession. In that case we will have a moss and other such organisms establish  their habitat, and so will collect the soil around themselves. after many many years we can have a layer of soil collected and may be some wind will bring a seed or two of some grass, or a bird will shake some small seeds off as it flies by, or drops it right on a spot! Yes it will take years and years, and eventually we may see something green and beautiful occupy the same destroyed bare land. As I was trying to find the some sort of moss for the pictures, I was not successful at this time, I know after the monsoon rains I have this gorgeous moss grows on a north side of the rock in a back of my house. Right not it is just way to dry. We also get this slimy mushroom looking organisms appear after some good rainy season. I will add their pictures here when I get to find them, later in the season.

 3.  Answer this question, How would you reply to someone who argues that we should not worry about our effects on natural systems because natural succession will heal the wounds of human activities and restore the balance of nature?

I will say sure! Nature does do a great deal of repairs, that we manage to provide. Just think of it like this. You work hard, you build a home, you are happily living in it. Fire comes, burns
that home, now you have nothing, even less then what you are originally started with...
How long will it take for you to get it all back ?  Well plants grow slow, nests build out of this plants, someone has to eat that plant and maybe that bird. If we destroy just one tiny part of a system, we are disrupting a whole system. As I pointed out in above pictures , after trees where cleared out 20 years ago, just now there are small baby trees trying to survive.