Study
Mechanisms of succession in natural communities and their role in community stability and organization
Connell, Joseph H.; Slatyer, Ralph O.
The American Naturalist, 1977
Distinguishes three mechanisms by which early occupants may affect later ones — facilitation, where they make conditions suitable; tolerance, where they neither help nor hinder; and inhibition, where they resist replacement until damaged or killed — and sets out what each predicts.
- Studied in
- Plantae, Animalia
- Sample size
- review across terrestrial and marine successional studies
The three mechanisms make different, testable predictions about what happens when early species are removed, and evidence supports different mechanisms in different systems, with inhibition common.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Succession is not one process, and identifying which mechanism operates requires manipulation rather than description of sequence.
How NatureHQ reads it
The record that turns succession from a story into a set of testable alternatives. The textbook version — pioneers prepare the ground for those that follow — is the facilitation model, and it is only one of three. Inhibition, in which early occupants hold the site until something removes them, is at least as common and produces the same sequence when watched from outside.
- A framework rather than a resolution; which mechanism operates must be established case by case.
- The three are not mutually exclusive within a single successional sequence.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: University press journalsPublished in a university press journal.
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.