Yellow Stone - Justin Marquez
Yellowstone National Park
At 2.2million acres, Yellowstone National Park is larger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. The National parks sits on an elevation of 8,000 feet, and 96 percent of Yellowstone is in Wyoming, 3 percent in Montana, and 1 percent in Idaho. This massive National Park is divided into 3 different states. But in 1988 a large fire erupted in the forest killing off most of the vegetation and organisms, and more than 500,000 acres went to crisp. Yellowstone suffered a second succession in this period of time.
After the Yellowstone National Park fire many abiotic factors came into place the climate dropped and plants and organisms struggle to grow in the first couple of years after the fire. Another huge factor was precipitation,in 1988 the forest had limitations to water as they were in a severe drought. Along with organisms losing their habitats it was hard to repopulate the burnt area, as a result pioneer species were not seen till years later.
Many biotic factors and habitats deteriorated during the fire such as tree’s animals bacteria and birds. Organisms failed to return to their habitats as the conditions did not provide all the resources the species needed. The majority of the organisms were forced to migrate and find new niches.
Secondary succession follows a predictable pattern of regrowth, beginning with weeds and grasses, and resulting into a climax community. A climax community is a stable community where resources, vegetation and organism reappear in a environment. Climax community is the final step to a succession. It takes many years to get to this state.
The Yellowstone National Park is still undergoing succession as it takes many years to become a climax community. As plants animals have to adapt to the area as the original vegetation will not return, the plants will continue to change until reaching its stable state. Once the area has made its way to become a climax community, it will be changed if a natural disaster occurs.