A chronosequence describes a set of ecological sites that share similar attributes but represent different ages.
[2] Since many processes in forest ecology take a long time (decades or centuries) to develop, chronosequence methods are used to represent and study the time-dependent development of a forest.
Field data from a forest chronosequence can be collected in a short period of several months.
Such groups of sites are used to assess the influence of time as a factor in pedogenesis.
For example, a study from 2005 used the distance from the nose of a glacier as a proxy for site age.