Aseral community is an intermediate stage found inecological succession in an ecosystem advancing towards itsclimax community. In many cases more than one seral stage evolves until climax conditions are attained.[1] A prisere is a collection of seres making up the development of an area from non-vegetated surfaces to a climax community.
A seral community is the name given to each group of plants within the succession. Aprimary succession describes those plant communities that occupy a site that has not previously been vegetated. These can also be described as thepioneer community.Computer modeling is sometimes used to evaluate likely succession stages in a seral community.[2]
Depending on the substratum and climate, a seral community can be one of the following:
Seral communities insecondary succession can be seen in a recently loggedconiferous forest. During the first two years,grasses,heaths andherbaceous plants such asfireweed will be abundant. After a few more yearsshrubs will start to appear; and about six to eight years after clearing, the area is likely to be crowded with youngbirches. Each of these stages can be referred to as a seral community.
In the far western part of North America,chaparral plant communities are typically controlled by periodic natural wildfires. In the southern portion of theCoast Ranges and inSouthern Californiachaparral,toyon is often a locally dominant taxon in seral communities transitional betweencoastal sage scrub.[3]