Conservation

Conservation is the management of species and habitats. It may be used to control succession. Is this really conservation? I mean, if we're preventing succession, we are reducing species diversity as we won't get climax communities consisting of dominant species such as trees.


Posted from TSR Mobile

The whole point of conservation is to preserve a desired species, the reason this is done is because the species we are damaging are favoured by the abiotic conditions and will thus out-compete the conserved species.


Yes controlling succession is decreasing species diversity however the moment we stop controlling it those species will reappear as like I said above, abiotic conditions are optimal for their growth. However if we do not conserve these desired species and let succession occur they will be out competed leading to competitive exclusion and the removal of that species from that area until conditions are ideal for it to maybe reappear.

It is conserving as we are conserving species that will probably not be there due to abiotic factors if not controlled. When conserving these species, species diversity isn't drastically reduced as the favourable conditions of the environment would mean that damaged species in order to conserve your desired species will be able to grow in that environment but not near the desired species due to management.

If you look closely in the AQA book, controlling succession doesn't necessarily mean "stopping" succession.

Say if we want to conserve a particular habitat BECAUSE it is lost during successional stages. We conserve this habitat WITHOUT CHANGES TO THE NEXT SUCCESSIONAL STAGE. That is, we are preventing the climax community forming.


Posted from TSR Mobile

Yeah I agree, but what you just explained is still stopping succession as succession is defined as the evolution of a biological community over time.