L'ÉRABLIÈRE LAURENTIENNE : II. LES SUCCESSIONS ET LEURS INDICATEURS

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Abstract
A scheme is presented to define the principal lines of succession in the area of the deciduous forest of the St. Lawrence valley. The climax is Aceretum saccharophori laurentianum, a deciduous forest dominated by Acer saccharophorum. This climax of the evolution of the regional vegetation is reached in 5 principal ways. In the course of the succession, gradual improvement of the site is effected by the pioneer and sub-climax associations. The latter are described briefly as to their floristic dominants and their phytosociological role. The various successions often have a subterminal stage very near the climax, with which it is confused in many essential characteristics, but in which the final evolution is inhibited by topographic or microclimatic causes, and where elements, typical of the series from which they come, still persist. These quasi-climaxes and the climax itself are described in some detail, as well as the unions which characterize the structure. After thus defining the "prisere", some elements of the "subsere" are analyzed: the maple trees where human intervention is being or has been exercised. These dis-climaxes are especially of 2 types, according to whether the degradation depends on wood cutting or pasturage. Conditions unknown in the "prisere" are then realized, which permit new equilibria to be established according to the adaptive capacity of the spp. These associations, these facies, these unions or these biotypes owe their duration, evidently, only to the more or less regular repetition of the intervention.