Letting Go – Day 3
Letting go – Day 3
Systems of Nature: Ecological Succession
Just as seasons come and go, and the plants and flowers blossom and die with the changing seasons, so too do ecosystems and species transform over time. Ecological succession is the process by which species within an environment change over time, in concert with the climatic and ambient conditions in the region. Some species rely on what we might call ‘acts of God’ to cleanse the region of the old detritus and make way for new growth.
Forest fires, volcanoes, brush fires, lightning strikes, floods; all of these can be the cause of the devastation and all bring similar results: complete destruction of the existing structure. Yet the land recovers, offering new species where before there wasn’t room or the conditions weren’t right. New creatures might move in to take advantage of the different stages of growth, some feeding on the tender shoots and others preferring the more mature growth in a few years’ time.
This kind of change can take place gradually, over years or decades, such as a farm or garden that has been neglected and taken over by new varieties of plants and weeds, brought in by the wind or by a variety of creatures. It can also happen overnight, the result of a flash flood or a lightning strike that starts dry grass or tinder alight and leads to an inferno. Either way, the land adapts gracefully, accepting that its definition as one way of being has been erased, and will be replaced with a new version. The creatures that are a vital part of the ecosystem also change their relationship with the land as a result, and adapt their own definitions of what it is, or was.
