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Succession in Streams

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Stream Ecology

Abstract

Succession is one of the oldest, most persistent, least resolved concepts in ecology. Throughout its history, the concept has been largely botanical. Early phytosociologists such as Cowles (1901), Clements (1916), and Gleason (1926) viewed succession exclusively as temporal change in terrestrial plant communities. Drury and Nisbet (1973) recently emphasized that successional ideas have been derived from and tests should be restricted to temperate forests. Given the parochial nature of the field, any attempt to apply successional concepts to running waters is, to say the least perilous. On the other hand, cross-fertilization by two disparate scientific fields is often fruitful to both in generating, if not always answering, interesting questions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, Arizona State University, 85287, Tempe, Arizona, USA

    Stuart G. Fisher

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  1. Stuart G. Fisher
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA

    James R. Barnes

  2. Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho, USA

    G. Wayne Minshall

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© 1983 Plenum Press, New York

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Fisher, S.G. (1983). Succession in Streams. In: Barnes, J.R., Minshall, G.W. (eds) Stream Ecology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3775-1_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3775-1_2

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