On the Causes of Temporal Change in Communities: Modification of the Biotic Environment

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Abstract
Similarities among communities occurring in a variety of habitats are adduced in support of a new mechanism for sequential changes in species composition: modification of the biotic environment, consisting of interactions among residents and between residents and immigrants, which complements the conventional mechanism, modification of the abiotic environment. Novel interpretations of successional phenomena among pelagic organisms of the open ocean and sessile ones of the nearshore benthos and old fields of the coastal plain are provided. Patterns common to all 3 confirm the importance of interactions, particularly predatory ones (Glasser 1979), in shaping and maintaining the structure of communities, although life histories and modification of the abiotic environment are important too. Models of plant succession and animal colonization are discussed.