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    Climax

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    Asad Ali
    The document discusses different theories of climax communities in ecology. It defines a climax community as a steady-state community where no further directional change takes place under prevailing conditions. It summarizes the monoclimax concept that only one true climax community is possible, controlled by climate. The polyclimax concept is that multiple climax communities can exist based on additional factors like soil and biotic interactions. The climax pattern theory is that stable plant communities develop based on all environmental factors, with different climax types organized by habitat conditions.

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    Climax

    Uploaded by

    Asad Ali
    114 views2 pages
    The document discusses different theories of climax communities in ecology. It defines a climax community as a steady-state community where no further directional change takes place under prevailing conditions. It summarizes the monoclimax concept that only one true climax community is possible, controlled by climate. The polyclimax concept is that multiple climax communities can exist based on additional factors like soil and biotic interactions. The climax pattern theory is that stable plant communities develop based on all environmental factors, with different climax types organized by habitat conditions.

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    The document discusses different theories of climax communities in ecology. It defines a climax community as a steady-state community where no further directional change takes place under prevailing conditions. It summarizes the monoclimax concept that only one true climax community is possible, controlled by climate. The polyclimax concept is that multiple climax communities can exist based on additional factors like soil and biotic interactions. The climax pattern theory is that stable plant communities develop based on all environmental factors, with different climax types organized by habitat conditions.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    114 views2 pages

    Climax

    Uploaded by

    Asad Ali
    The document discusses different theories of climax communities in ecology. It defines a climax community as a steady-state community where no further directional change takes place under prevailing conditions. It summarizes the monoclimax concept that only one true climax community is possible, controlled by climate. The polyclimax concept is that multiple climax communities can exist based on additional factors like soil and biotic interactions. The climax pattern theory is that stable plant communities develop based on all environmental factors, with different climax types organized by habitat conditions.

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    Climax

    • Culmination of a directional change is a steady-state, a climax


    community, in which no further directional change takes place under the
    prevailing environmental conditions.
    • It is the terminus of habitat and vegetation development.
    • The climax community is a steady state with respect to productivity,
    structure and population.
    • The climax community has a maximum diversity, relative stability and
    homogeneity of the spp. populations within and between stands.
    • Each stand is self-maintaining and long-persisting.
    • The composition and population of the climax are determined by all
    factors of a mature ecosystem like
    o The properties of each species
    o Biotic inter-relations
    o Floristic & Faunistic availability
    o Chances of dispersal
    o Inter-specific and intra-specific interaction
    o Type of soil
    o Climatic situation
    o And special factors like fire, wind, snow and salinity.
    • There is a mosaic of climax types, corresponding to the mosaic of
    habitats or environmental gradients (Hanson & Churchill, 1961).
    • However, changes are expected within the climax and fluctuation change.

    THEORIES OF CLIMAX

    1. Monoclimax Concept (Clements, 1916)


    • Only one true climax community is possible, which is mainly controlled
    by the climatic factors.
    • It is thus a climatic climax
    • It is not affected by soil or topography
    • Subordinate communities are: proclimax, preclimax, postclimax,
    sereclimax, subclimax and disclimax
    Proclimax: Another stable community developing on the margins of climax
    community. On disturbance, it can easily be changed in appearance.
    Preclimax: When climax is localized in regions or margins in which plants are of
    lower order than climax. It is often a drier patch or region for example
    on a higher elevation on a mountain slope.

    1
    Postclimax: It is often developed in regions having greater moisture than in normal
    climax community. A strip of vegetation of higher life-forms found
    within a climax e.g. a forest along a stream in grassland. Another
    example is a community at a lower altitude than a particular climax
    community, e.g. on a mountain. An example is of Potohar Plateau in
    the plains of Punjab.
    Sereclimax: The community, which becomes stabilized at any of the seral stages of
    succession due to microclimate.
    Subclimax: The stage in succession just preceding the climatic climax
    Disclimax: The community, which becomes stabilized due of recurrent
    disturbance by man or other biotic factors.
    • According to the monoclimax concept, all these communities, over a long
    period of time are believed to undergo modification by the action of
    climate into a true climax vegetation

    2. Polyclimax Concept: (Tansley, 1935)


    • A climax reflects not only the climatic factors but also other factors of
    the environmental complex i.e. edaphic, biotic etc.
    • The climax can be of several other kinds, which are different from the
    climatic climax of the area.
    • Climate is not the only factor that determines the climax in a large area,
    other factors like edaphic, topographic and biotic factors are equally
    important.
    • Thus, within the same climatic zone, edaphic, topographic and biotic
    climaxes may occur in localized regions.
    • In this way in addition to the climatic climax, different climax stages may
    develop e.g. Edaphic climax, Topographic climax, Biotic climax
    (Disclimax), Fire climax etc.

    3. Climax Pattern Theory: (Whittaker, 1953)


    • The stable plant communities are developed by the effect of all the
    environmental factors at a particular place.
    • Vegetation may not be divided into small sub-units.
    • The most important point of this theory is that only one large community
    develops according to soil, slope and other habitat factors.
    • Various climax types are orderly organized due to different
    environmental conditions.

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