seral stages

Seral stages are the different natural phases a habitat goes through as it recovers and changes over time. Imagine a forest will start as bare soil after a disturbance, then grasses and shrubs grow (early stage), followed by young trees (middle stage), and eventually mature into a stable, mature forest (climax stage). Each stage provides specific plants and animals suited to that environment. These stages help ecosystems evolve, adapt, and maintain balance, ultimately leading to a stable ecosystem unless changed again by disturbance.