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20.2
Term | Definition |
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climax community | a community that, after a process of ecological succession, has reached a generally stable state |
disturbance | in ecology, an event that changes a community by removing or destroying organisms or altering resource availability |
ecological succession | a gradual process of change and replacement in a community |
pioneer species | a species that colonizes an uninhabited area and that starts an ecological cycle in which many other species become established |
primary succession | succession that begins in an area that previously did not support life |
secondary succession | the process by which one community replaces another |
species-area effect | a pattern in which the number of species in an area increases as the area increases |
species evenness | a measure of the relative abundance of each species in an ecological community |
species richness | the number of different species in an area or community |
stability | the tendency of a community to maintain a relatively constant structure |