Climax community

This equilibrium was thought to occur because the climax community is composed of species best adapted to average conditions in that area.

The English botanist Arthur Tansley developed this idea with the "polyclimax"—multiple steady-state end-points, determined by edaphic factors, in a given climatic zone.

Henry Gleason's early challenges to Clements' organism simile, and other strategies of his for describing vegetation were largely disregarded for several decades until substantially vindicated by research in the 1950s and 1960s (below).

Clements' terms such as pre-climax, post-climax, plagioclimax and disclimax continued to be used to describe the many communities which persist in states that diverge from the climax ideal for a particular area.

[6] Many authors and nature-enthusiasts continue to use the term "climax" in a diluted form to refer to what might otherwise be called mature or old-growth communities.

This concept borrows from Clements' earliest interpretation of climax as referring to an ecosystem that is resistant to colonization by outside species.

Warren Woods in Michigan, USA, is an example of a beech-maple climax forest . Beech (center) and sugar maple (bottom left) dominate the forest due to their towering height and tolerance of shade.
Climax community in Tongass National Forest , Alaska , a Sitka spruce - western hemlock forest. The primary disturbances are floods, landslides, and salt spray, all of which occur only in small areas, allowing for a relatively stable equilibrium. [ 4 ]