concept

Secondary succession

The recovery of a place that has been disturbed but still retains its soil and some of its life: after a wildfire, a blowdown, a clear-cut, a thin non-sterilising ash fall. It proceeds fast because pioneers can immediately draw on the existing nutrient store, moisture-holding capacity and buried seed bank. This is why an RDA-burned forest regrows — the underground template was never destroyed. Unlike primary succession, secondary succession rebuilds from a living template.