Question

How is the biomass of a community affected as it progresses from one seral stage to the next during ecological succession?

• A. It decreases
• B. It increases initially and then decrease
• C. There is no correlation between biomass and ecological succession
• D. It increases continuously

Answer 1

The correct option is D It increases continuously

Ecological succession is a steady, gradual change in the composition and structure of communities of an area with the changing environment. It is predictable, sequential and occurs in accordance with the changing physical environment.
In an area, the entire sequence of communities that successively undergo change are called sere(s). Each individual community formed during the transitions is called a seral stage or seral community.
Biomass is the amount of living organic matter in a unit area. At each stage in succession, there is an increase in the population of some species while the population of some species declines. As the number and types of species increase with progressing succession, more biomass is added to the area. This occurs due to changes in the physical environment made by the species in the preceding stage.