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POST-CLIMAX [1 record]

Record 1 2011-06-15

English

Subject field(s)
  • Ecology (General)
  • Plant Biology
DEF

The point in a plant succession at which development has continued beyond the balanced state of climax.

CONT

climax: The culminating stage of plant succession for a given environment, the vegetation being conceived as having reached a highly stable condition. NOTE: (1) Some ecologists restrict the term to vegetation of mature sites and soils, which they presume to have a high degree of permanence. Others apply it to vegetation which they conceived to be stable only as long as the environment remains unchanged or to vegetation which changes only in response to changes in climate and/or soil substrate that are slow relative to the rate of plant succession. (2) Clements claimed that, for a given region, there was only one true climax - the stable vegetation of mesic sites, the nature of which determined by climate and hence termed by him the climatic climax; deviations that are stable only through the influences of factors other than climate received special names, e.g. pre-climax (local unfavorable conditions preventing full vegetational complexity), postclimax (local favorable conditions permitting fuller complexity), biotic climax (maintained by biotic factors), edaphic climax (maintained by soil factors).

Key term(s)
  • postclimax formation

French

Domaine(s)
  • Écologie (Généralités)
  • Biologie végétale
DEF

Végétation relique qui requiert normalement des conditions d'humidité plus favorables que les conditions générales actuelles et qui subsiste en un endroit à la suite de compensations locales édaphiques ou microclimatiques favorables.

Spanish

Campo(s) temático(s)
  • Ecología (Generalidades)
  • Biología vegetal
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