Final answer:
Ecological succession is the process where differing communities sequentially replace one another in a habitat until a stable ecosystem is potentially established.
Step-by-step explanation:
The directional pattern of change where one community replaces another until a typical community of the area results is known as ecological succession. This process involves a series of predictable stages where different plant and animal species colonize and modify an environment over time. Ecological succession can be categorized into two types: primary succession and secondary succession.
Primary succession occurs in an area that was never previously colonized by living organisms, such as a lava flow or an area left by a retreating glacier. In contrast, secondary succession happens in areas that were previously occupied but underwent a disturbance, such as a forest fire or a flood, which eliminated the previous community.
A climax community is what many early ecologists thought to be the final, stable community at the end of succession, but current understanding suggests that ecosystems are often disturbed too frequently to reach this stage, and that change is a normal, ongoing part of ecosystem dynamics.