Climax species, also called late seral, late-successional,

K-selected In ecology, selection theory relates to the natural selection, selection of combinations of Trait (biological), traits in an organism that trade off between quantity and quality of offspring. The focus on either an increased quantity of offsprin ...

or equilibrium species, are

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

that can germinate and grow with limited resources; e.g., they need heat exposure or low water availability. They are the species within forest succession that are more adapted to stable and predictable environments, and will remain essentially unchanged in terms of

species composition Relative species abundance is a component of biodiversity and is a measure of how common or rare a species is relative to other species in a defined location or community.Hubbell, S. P. 2001. ''The unified neutral theory of biodiversity and biogeog ...

for as long as a site remains undisturbed. The

seedling A seedling is a young sporophyte developing out of a plant embryo from a seed. Seedling development starts with germination of the seed. A typical young seedling consists of three main parts: the radicle (embryonic root), the hypocotyl (embry ...

s of climax species can grow in the shade of the parent trees, ensuring their dominance indefinitely. The presence of climax species can also reduce the prevalence of other species within an ecosystem. However, a disturbance, such as fire, may kill the climax species, allowing pioneer or earlier successional species to re-establish for a time. They are the opposite of

pioneer species Pioneer species are resilient species that are the first to colonize barren environments, or to repopulate disrupted biodiverse steady-state ecosystems as part of ecological succession. Various kinds of events can create good conditions for pi ...

, also known as

ruderal A ruderal species is a plant species that is first to colonize disturbed lands. The disturbance may be natural for example, wildfires or avalanchesor the consequences of human activities, such as construction ( of roads, of buildings, mining, e ...

, fugitive, opportunistic or

R-selected In ecology, selection theory relates to the selection of combinations of traits in an organism that trade off between quantity and quality of offspring. The focus on either an increased quantity of offspring at the expense of reduced individua ...

species, in the sense that climax species are good competitors but poor colonizers, whereas pioneer species are good colonizers but poor competitors. Given the prevailing ecological conditions, climax species dominate the

climax community In scientific ecology, climax community or climatic climax community is a historic term for a community of plants, animals, and fungi which, through the process of ecological succession in the development of vegetation in an area over time, hav ...

. When the pace of succession slows down as the result of ecological homeostasis, the maximum permitted

biodiversity Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...

is reached. Their reproductive strategies and other adaptive characteristics can be considered more sophisticated than those of opportunistic species. Through

negative feedback Negative feedback (or balancing feedback) occurs when some function (Mathematics), function of the output of a system, process, or mechanism is feedback, fed back in a manner that tends to reduce the fluctuations in the output, whether caused ...

, they adapt themselves to specific environmental conditions. Climax species are mostly found in forests. Climax species, closely controlled by

carrying capacity The carrying capacity of an ecosystem is the maximum population size of a biological species that can be sustained by that specific environment, given the food, habitat, water, and other resources available. The carrying capacity is defined as the ...

, follow K strategies, wherein species produce fewer numbers of potential offspring, but invest more heavily in securing the reproductive success of each one to the micro-environmental conditions of its specific

ecological niche In ecology, a niche is the match of a species to a specific environmental condition. Three variants of ecological niche are described by It describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of Resource (biology), resources an ...

. Climax species might be

iteroparous Semelparity and iteroparity are two contrasting reproductive strategies available to living organisms. A species is considered ''semelparous'' if it is characterized by a single reproduction, reproductive episode before death, and ''iteroparous ...

, energy consumption efficient and

nutrient cycling A nutrient cycle (or ecological recycling) is the movement and exchange of inorganic and organic matter back into the production of matter. Energy flow is a unidirectional and noncyclic pathway, whereas the movement of mineral nutrients is cyc ...

Disputed term

The idea of a climax species has been criticized in recent ecological literature. Any assessment of successional states depends on assumptions about the natural fire regime. But the idea of a dominant species is still widely used in

silvicultural Silviculture is the practice of controlling the growth, composition/structure, as well as quality of forests to meet values and needs, specifically timber production. The name comes from the Latin ('forest') and ('growing'). The study of forests ...

programs and California Department of Forestry literature.

Examples

White spruce White spruce is a common name for several species of spruce (''Picea'') and may refer to: * '' Picea engelmannii'', native to the Rocky Mountains and Cascade Mountains of the United States and Canada * ''Picea glauca ''Picea glauca'', the whi ...

(''Picea glauca'') is an example of a climax species in the northern forests of North America due to its ability to adapt to resource scarce, stable conditions, it dominates Northern forest ecosystem in the absence of a disturbance. Other examples of climax species in old-growth forests: * Canadian hemlock * Pacific silver fir *

White fir ''Abies concolor'', the white fir, concolor fir, or Colorado fir, is a coniferous tree in the pine family Pinaceae. This tree is native to the mountains of western North America, including the Sierra Nevada and southern Rocky Mountains, and int ...

* Yellow carabeen * Blue grama *

Douglas fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is the tallest tree in the Pinaceae family. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Or ...

* Coast redwood * European beech

Disputed term

Examples

See also

References

Further reading