Secondary succession

Trees are colonizing uncultivated fields and meadows

Secondary succession is one of the two types of ecological succession of plant life. As opposed to primary succession, secondary succession is a process started by an event^[1] (e.g. forest fire, harvesting, hurricane) that reduces an already established ecosystem (e.g. a forest or a wheat field) to a smaller population of species, and as such secondary succession occurs on preexisting soil where as primary succession usually occurs in a place lacking soil. A harvested forest going back from being a cleared forest to its original state, the "climax community" (a term to use cautiously), is an example of secondary succession. Each stage a community goes through on its way to the climax community in succession can be referred to as a "seral community."

Simply put, secondary succession is the succession that occurs after the initial succession has been disrupted and some plants and animals still exist.

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