Succession is the natural progression of species displacing one another, beginning with pioneer species and ending with a diverse stable ecology of climax species. Displacement is achieved by taking or blocking resources such as nutrients, water, light or anything else a plant or fungus needs to live.
When designing a self-contained ecosystem, the food chain for micro-biology has to be worked out first. What goes on in the soil has more influence than what is going on top of the soil layer. That means we need to first grow soil, not plants.
The litter layer is a thin compost bin. It's nature's way of taking apart dead things and reusing the nutrients for new plant growth. This is where a lot of the chemical reactions take place.
Below is a diagram of plant succession in the soil. In general (not always), larger plants, like trees and hard wooded stems, take more fungi and a more diverse sets of Protists and Nematodes for the soil food chain. Grasses require more bacteria soil. It's best to group plants that have similar and different soil needs to establish a strong growth. This also goes for the plants root structure and what family they belong to. Below is a picture of plant succession on top of the soil. More disturbed soil generally grows grasses and things with tap roots. When the soil is more established, more "forest" things move in.
Further Reading:
One of the first attempts to document succession was done in the late 1800s. The concept of succession has been known for centuries, at least on an intuitive level. Pictured below is the front cover for Fred Clements book on Succession. It's about 500 pages long. It's available online from any library for free.
When designing a self-contained ecosystem, the food chain for micro-biology has to be worked out first. What goes on in the soil has more influence than what is going on top of the soil layer. That means we need to first grow soil, not plants.
The litter layer is a thin compost bin. It's nature's way of taking apart dead things and reusing the nutrients for new plant growth. This is where a lot of the chemical reactions take place.
Below is a diagram of plant succession in the soil. In general (not always), larger plants, like trees and hard wooded stems, take more fungi and a more diverse sets of Protists and Nematodes for the soil food chain. Grasses require more bacteria soil. It's best to group plants that have similar and different soil needs to establish a strong growth. This also goes for the plants root structure and what family they belong to. Below is a picture of plant succession on top of the soil. More disturbed soil generally grows grasses and things with tap roots. When the soil is more established, more "forest" things move in.
Further Reading:
One of the first attempts to document succession was done in the late 1800s. The concept of succession has been known for centuries, at least on an intuitive level. Pictured below is the front cover for Fred Clements book on Succession. It's about 500 pages long. It's available online from any library for free.