Figure 19.10 Succession effects on species richness. Across a variety of communities, succession is associated with a rapid increase in species richness that slows over time and eventually plateaus. Examples shown here include (a) woody plants in old fields in North Carolina, (b) birds in old fields in Georgia, and (c) algae and invertebrates from the intertidal boulders of southern California.

Data from (a) H. J. Oosting, An ecological analysis of the plant communities of Piedmont, North Carolina, American Midland Naturalist 28 (1942): 1–126; (b) D. W. Johnston and E. P. Odum, Breeding bird populations in relation to plant succession on the Piedmont of Georgia, Ecology 37 (1956): 50–62; (c) W. P. Sousa, Disturbance in marine intertidal boulder fields: The nonequilibrium maintenance of species diversity, Ecology 60 (1979): 1225–1239.