Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1.5 Evolution and Development of Ecosystem
1.5 Evolution and Development of Ecosystem
1.5 Evolution and Development of Ecosystem
Introduction
Development of Ecosystem (or) Ecological Succession
Evolution of Ecosystem
INTRODUCTION
Terrestrial communities
Mesic communities
Phytoplankton
(2) POSSIBLE SUCCESSION IN THE FOREST ECOSYSTEM
COMMUNITY EVOLUTION
Like the responses of communities to changing abiotic conditions, community
evolution involves progressive changes in climax communities. Because the
evolution is exceedingly slow, it cannot be observed in operation, and few
instances from the fossil record are sufficiently complete to show the process in
action.
The example mat best demonstrates evolution of the basic structure of the
community is that of the development of a terrestrial community of a modern type
by early reptiles some 250 million years ago. Between the time when vertebrates
(amphibians) first became able to lead a predominant terrestrial xistence some
350 million years ago and the establishment of an essentially modern type food
web some 100 million years later, the structure of terrestrial community was
decidedly different from what it is now. Development of the modern type of
community structure required not only a complete rearrangement of the niche
structure of the community but also the evolution of new species • that could fill
the new niches (Olson, 1961, 1966).
Attainment of the adaptations needed for terrestrial life by the first amphibians
did not in itself establish a land-based vertebrate community. These early
amphibians were carnivores, and the only animals inhabiting the land
environment were insects. It is unbelievable that the clumsy locomotor system of
early amphibians would have allowed them to prey effectively on animals such as
insects. Thus, the first communities inhabited by terrestrial vertebrates are best
regarded as extensions of aquatic communities, with the land habit as an
adaptation to improve the capabilities of organisms whose prime food supply was
aquatic invertebrates and fish.
By some 300 million years ago, reptiles had evolved that could feed
effectively on terrestrial invertebrates. An entirely land-based community was
theoretically possible in which all herbivore niches were assumed by
invertebrates and some of the carnivore niches uy vertebrates. However, the
palaeoccological evidences suggest that most contemporary carnivorous
vertebrates were unable as yet to realize an entirely terrestrial carnivore niche,
so that 'he great majority of the energy flow through the community continued to
pass through the aquatic route. The typical food chain to the highest terrestrial
vertebrate carnivore was plant → aquatic invertebrate → aquatic invertebrate-
feeding vertebrate → semi-aquatic predator → terrestrial predator.
By 250 million years ago terrestrial herbivorous vertebrates had evolved and
a fully terrestrial vertebrates community could come into being. From this time
onward the basic structure of the terrestrial community was of an essentially
modern sort, with all consumer trophic levels occupied by a wide range of
animals, both vertebrates and invertebrates.
Such evolutionary changes in the structure of communities are caused by a
large number of factors. One factor is changes in the regional climate. It became
progressively drier during the period under consideration, and the development
of a land-based community reasonably responded in this sort of change. Indeed
many evolutionary changes in community structure can be explained on the
basis of responses of major changes in the regional abiotic factors of the
environment (Axelrod, 1950, 1958). But other chief factors of evolutionary
change in community include reorganization of the community's structure in
response to the realization of niches that had not previously existed in the
community.