Down and Dirty

Frederic Clements

this man was born in Nebraska
(exciting, I know)
and grew up to become a botanist and an ecologist, obtaining his degrees from the University of Nebraska
where he met his future wife, also a botanist-ecologist
they were married in 1899
Clements obtained his PhD in 1898
and became a professor at the University of Nebraska in 1905
he left not more than two years later to take a job as the head of the botany department at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis
he stayed in Minnesota for ten years and spent the rest of his career (1917–1941) at the Carnegie Institute of Washington in Washington D.C.
why do we care about this man?
he is one of the ecologists who built the foundation of how we think about succession in plant communities
in the first quarter of the 20th century
there was much debate among ecologists about the nature of a biological community
Clements’ theory was that communities of organisms function as one super-organism
all species of a community are closely bound
as closely interdependent as cells, tissues, and organs

but let’s back up for a moment
communities of organisms, like plants go through a process called succession
succession is the change in the composition of a community (in this case, a plant community) over time
this is change over decades, not annual change
successional change is cumulative and directional
meaning that it compounds upon itself and progresses in a predictable manner
for example
for a very generalized and not nearly nuanced enough example
there is a forest fire that kills all the plants in the forest community
now the plant community must start anew
usually the first set of plants to return are annual plants
then, after a few years, perennials and grasses start to appear
then shrubs
then softwood trees
then hardwood trees
and then you have a forest again

so how does this relate back to Clements?
he hypothesized that succession will eventually reach a climax point
a point at which there is no more change in the composition of the plant community
the main drivers of succession are competition between plants and plant modification of the environment
plants compete for resources to survive
so those that do the best job of obtaining those resources are the ones that get to live
and plants modify their environment
by using resources, they deplete resources
so as they modify their own environment, they are slowly making it less habitable for themselves and more habitable for other plant species
so those other species come in and form the next stage of the succession process
Clements is the man behind all of this magic
and it all makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?
well
many of his colleagues didn’t think so

But they didn’t totally discredit his theory. There are some things that Clementian succession can explain and some it cannot. His colleagues and ecologists in the generations that followed further disseminated how succession functions and came to something of a synthesis between Clements’ ideas and those of other scientists. Ecology is a young science and we are just beginning to organize the tenets of how ecosystems function. It’s messy and it’s exciting.

Time to get dirty.

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Clements?oldformat=true>.

“(i). Plant Succession.” 9(i) Plant Succession. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2016. <http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/9i.html>.