Answer:
How do biodiversity, the total number of living
organisms and biomass vary during ecological
succession?
- Ecological succession refers to the recovery of the ecosystem
after disturbance.
- With the increase in ecological succession, both the
biodiversity and biomass of an ecosystem tend to increase.
Biodiversity refers to the range and variety of living organisms
within a specified area whereas biomass refers to the total mass of
living organisms in a specific area at a given time.
- This occurs due to gradual and systematic change in an
ecosystem that is caused due to replacement of one community with
the other community till a stable climax is achieved and the
community is dominated by well-adapted species. Ecosystems with
high biodiversity are also more resistant to disturbance or
damage.
- As the ecological succession occurs, complex food webs evolve
and total biomass of the ecosystem increases.