2.5.13 (HL)—Plagioclimax

A plagioclimax is a community maintained because human activity arrests or redirects succession.

Name the intervention, the transition it blocks, and the community maintained. Repeated grazing or mowing can remove tree seedlings; stopping the intervention may allow a different stage to develop.

Annual mowing keeps grassland open by preventing shrubs and trees from establishing.

Shrub or woodland succession may resume, subject to soil, climate and other disturbances.

Plagioclimax is not ‘unnatural’ in every value judgement; it is a descriptive term for human-maintained succession state.