Description: Forest Haze
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Over time forests change from the pioneer stage, to the middle stage, to the climax stage. It takes about 200 years for this to happen. In the pioneer stage, not very many trees were in the forest. It was mostly weeds and small plants. In the middle stage, the forest contained small trees, and plants. Finally, in the climax stage, the forest was full grown. It contained full size trees, plants everywhere, and animals of all sorts.
PATTERNS
Patterns can be seen in the growth of a forest. It starts with trees and plants growing with energy from the sun. Small animals come and feed on the plants. Then, when the trees are full grown, bigger animals come to the forest. These animals feed on the smaller animals and use the trees for shelter. New trees grow, but the plants die, so the small animals have no food. If the small animals die, the big animals have no food to eat. These new trees can house and feed different animals. Small, then big animals come in, and the process keeps going.
CONTRIBUTION
The pioneer trees, which are the first trees to take hold of a piece of land, a lightning storm, and a fire contributed to the forest being in the climax stage. The pioneer trees gave the shade loving trees a chance to grow by providing them with shade in which to grow. The storm and fires burned down trees, giving the small trees who couldn’t grow in the shade a chance. It also freed up space for other trees to grow in. This, happening over and over, gave the forest its appearance today, in its climax stage.
CONVERGENCE
In a forest, many things come together or converge, to create what the forest is today. These things include the amount of nutrients in the soil, the amount of water, the amount of shelter, and the kinds of plants in the forest.
