Question

Define a sere.

Answer 1

Hint: A sere is a part of an ecological succession, which is the process of change in the structure of species in an ecological community over a period of time. The time scale may range from decades to millions of years.

Complete answer:
- A sere, or a seral community, is defined as the sequence of development stages of an ecological community that starts from the pioneers to the climax stage.
- A sere can be classified into a primary succession and a secondary succession. Primary succession occurs in a landscape that does not have any vegetation or the soil to support so. Secondary succession is when an event like a forest fire, harvesting, hurricane, or other natural calamities destroys or reduces an already present ecosystem to very few members. This succession occurs on already existing soil.
- Seres can be of one of the following types: hydrosere - a community that forms in water; lithosere - a community that forms on rocks; psammosere - a community that forms on sand; xerosere - a community that forms on a dry and arid area; halosere - a community that forms on a marshy and saline area.

Additional Information: - Ecological succession can be driven in two different ways - allogenic succession or autogenic succession.
- Allogenic succession is driven by the abiotic components of the ecosystem such as volcanoes, meteors, flooding, etc.
- Autogenic succession is driven by the biotic components of the ecosystem such as plant growth and death, decomposition of detritus, etc.

Note: - Secondary succession proceeds faster than primary succession.
- The succession stages in a sere can be predicted by computer modeling.