Study
Plant Succession: An Analysis of the Development of Vegetation
Clements, Frederic E.
Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1916
Presents vegetation development as an orderly, directional and predictable process in which a site passes through a determinate series of stages towards a stable climax community determined by regional climate, with the community treated as an entity developing like an organism.
- Studied in
- Plantae
- Sample size
- synthesis of vegetation development across North American sites
Vegetation change after disturbance follows recognisable sequences, and sites within a climatic region tend to converge on similar mature vegetation.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
A plant community is a superorganism whose development proceeds towards a climax determined by climate.
How NatureHQ reads it
Included because its vocabulary is still what most people were taught, decades after ecology moved away from it. Pioneer species, seres, climax community: the terms carry an implication of directed development towards a proper endpoint, and that implication is what the field later rejected. The observations of orderly sequence are real; the interpretation placed on them is not the current one.
- The superorganism conception was contested from the outset and is not the modern position.
- Convergence on a single climax per climate is not what long-term studies find.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Public-domain scientific works
doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.56234
Checked against Crossref on 2026-09-28, and they agree on the title, the authors and the year.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-09-04.