Introduction (written for students)

An important and often misunderstood concept in ecology is succession. Succession refers to the series of changes observed in a plant community following a disturbance event (Connell and Slayter 1977). A disturbance event, such as a wildfire, flood, landslide or hurricane, is an event that changes ecosystem structure and resource availability (Pickett and White 1985). For an example of succession, think of a severe forest fire that kills many trees. What was once a closed canopy forest with very little light reaching the ground is now a very open and bright place. Plants and seeds that were in the shade can take advantage of the new available resources, including sunlight. The plant species that will thrive in the new, open environment may be different from those that grew under the closed forest canopy. These plants are called early successional plants because they thrive in recently disturbed environments. They are also called colonizers, ruderals or weeds. Over time, as colonizers grow, they change the environment again (by shading, or changing soil conditions), which creates opportunities for a different set of plant species. These plant species that establish after the early successional species are called late successional species. They are generally less tolerant of disturbance events. These species also often grow more slowly and live longer than early successional species and only become prevalent a while after the disturbance event. Plant communities can be thought of as going through cycles of disturbance followed by succession followed by disturbance and so on. This is not to say that these cycles, and the resulting communities, are ever identical or exactly repeatable.

In this lab, students explore the dynamics of plant communities, that is, how plant communities change over time and space as a result of interactions between plants, their biotic and abiotic environment, and chance events. The concepts of succession and disturbance dynamics are timely given the extent to which human-caused disturbances, such as logging and land development, are influencing global ecosystems and the extent to which natural disturbances, such as fires and floods, are actively managed. Informed voters and citizens should know about disturbance and succession in plant communities. Knowledge of these processes will help them make decisions about land conservation, wildlife habitat restoration and natural resource management practices.

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Materials and Methods (written for faculty)

Figures

• Figure 1: Game board, left side.
• Figure 2: Game board, right side.
• Figure 3: Event cards, disturbance events. Create a deck of event cards by making multiple copies of both disturbance and no disturbance cards.
• Figure 4: Event cards, non-disturbance events. Create a deck of event cards by making multiple copies of both disturbance and no disturbance cards.
• Figure 5: Character cards. Only one set of character cards is needed for each game.
• Figure 6: Interaction cards. To make a deck of interaction cards, make multiple copies.
• Figure 7: The rules handout. Handouts for students, include the rules, worksheet and sample community diagram.
• Figure 8: Blank Student Worksheet. Have student record their results in the blanks provided.
• Figure 9: Sample community diagram. Handout for students with instructions on creating their own community diagrams, and a sample diagram.

Overview of Data Collection and Analysis Methods:

In the game, each student plays the role of one of six different imaginary plant species. The student with the most plants of his or her species in the community wins the game. As students play the game, they learn that the six plants respond differently to the disturbances. They also learn that plants interact with each other. Each round begins with an event card randomly drawn from a deck of cards. All the players then move across the playing board based upon that one event and the response of their given plant species. When two or more players land on the same spot, they must draw an interaction card for each pair of interacting players.

The rules handout explains how to play, step by step. The game ends when a player reaches the Finish square. At the end of the game, students count the event cards that were played, and record the number of each event type on their worksheet (Figure 8). Students also record the position of the players on the playing board. Using the sample diagram (Figure 9), have students diagram what their plant community looked like at the end of the game (based on the premise that the further a player travels on the board, the greater the number of individuals of their species). If any players are at the Start box at the end of the game, their species has zero plants in the diagram. After an initial discussion following the first game, ask students to predict the results of a game played without the Disturbance Event cards. They can play again and test their prediction. To evaluate their learning, ask students to “manage” disturbance by stacking the event deck to favor a particular species. Then have them test the results of their management by playing a game with the stacked deck.

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How to Play the Floristic Relay Game

Number of players: 6

Object of the game: First player to reach the “Finish” square wins.

Step 1: Choose a dealer.

Step 2: All players, including the dealer, choose a game piece. Place game pieces in the “Start” square.

Step 3: Dealer shuffles Event Cards and places them face down in Future Events spot on the playing board. Shuffle and place the Interaction Cards face down in their spot, and deal one Character Card to each player.

Step 4: The dealer draws the first Event Card and places it face up in the Current Event spot.

Step 5: Each player then plays according to the Event and Character Card directions, starting with the dealer and going clockwise.

Step 6: After all players have their turn, check the board for players who landed on the same square. These players are interacting.

• Interactions are played in the same order as Events (clockwise starting at the dealer)
• Two at a time, the interacting players draw one Interaction Card.
• Play according to the interaction card.

Step 7: Repeat Steps 4-6 until a player wins. Record the order of the players and the number of each type of event that occurred during the game.

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Questions for Further Thought and Discussion

Some possible discussion questions include:

• How would you describe the diagram produced, is it more like a forest, a grassland or a shrubland?
• What happens during a fire? A landslide? Grazing? What about during no disturbance periods?
• Which species tend to increase in abundance during times of no disturbance? What traits do they have in common?
• How do early and late successional species differ from each other? Which life-history traits might allow a species to respond well to a fire event. Which traits might make a species a better competitor?
• What would happen if we stacked the deck to reduce the number of Disturbance Cards? Try it, was your prediction correct?
• Will the winner always be the same? Why or why not?
• How might changes in the plant community affect other properties of the ecosystem?
• How does this imaginary system compare to real ecosystems in the number of species?
• How would you change the deck to ensure that your species wins? Try it, did it work?

After initially diagramming their community and answering discussion questions within their group, you could have students share their results with the class. You could also jigsaw the teams and ask all the truffula trees to compare their data, all the lorax trees to compare their data, etcetera, to demonstrate that the same species don’t always have the same successional outcome.

With advanced students, you can introduce other concepts in plant population biology and community ecology. For example:

• In the game, events occur at random. Does this reflect how events, such as fires, occur in time in real ecosystems?
• The outcome of interactions in the game also has a random component, it depends on the draw of a card. How does this reflect real species interactions?
• In the game, demographic events, such as reproduction and mortality, are occurring independent of population size. Is this realistic?
• You could discuss the possible effects of order of arrival such as those described by Egler (1954). The point is that ecological factors and/or chance events that affect who colonizes first following a disturbance change the course of successional development by preempting space or other limiting resources. The season of the disturbance can be one of the major factors affecting the order of arrival (e.g., controlled burns in fall versus spring determine seedling establishment). You could challenge more advanced students to find a way to include this dimension into the game.

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References and Links

• Connell, J. H., and R.O. Slayter. 1977. Mechanisms of succession in natural communities and their role in community stability and organization. The American Naturalist, 111, 1119-1144.
• Diamond, J., and T. J. Case. 1986. Community Ecology. New York: Harper & Row Publishers Inc.
• Egler, F. E. 1954. Vegetation science concepts. I. Initial floristic composition, a factor in old field vegetational development. Vegetatio, 4(1), 412-417
• Ellington, H., M. Gordon, and J. Fowlie. (1998). Using games and simulations in the classroom. London, U. K. Kogan Page Ltd.
• Gibson, D. J. 1996. Textbook misconceptions: the climax concept of succession. The American Biology Teacher, 58(3), 135-140.
• Kaplan, S., and R. Kaplan. (1982). Cognition and Environment. New York: Praeger Publishers.
• Monroe, M. W. 1968. Games as Teaching Tools: an Examination of the Community Land Use Game. Unpublished MS Thesis, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
• Pickett, S. T. A., and P. S. White. 1985. The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and Patch Dynamics. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
• Quinn, J. F., and A. E. Dunham. 1983. On hypothesis testing in ecology and evolution. The American Naturalist. 122:602-617.
• Randel, J. M., B. A. Morris, C. D. Wetzel, and B. V. Whitehill. 1992. The effectiveness of games for educational purposes: a review of recent research. Simulation & Gaming, 23, 261-276.
• Teed, R. Game-based Learning. http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/games
  Excellent resource for using and creating games for education.

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Tools for Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes

You can have students turn in written answers to the discussion questions. I have also used the following questions to assess student learning. Specifically, we quizzed students before and after the lesson to see if they learned what we hoped they’d learn.

1. What effect might a disturbance, such as a wildfire, have on the plants in the affected area?
• 5 point answer: Some species harmed, others benefit.
• 1 point answer: All species harmed.
2. Describe several ways individuals of two different plant species might interact with each other. Will they always interact the same way?
• 5 point answer: Competition, facilitation (providing nutrients, creating shade, attracting pollinators), tolerance. No, interactions depend on resource availability.
• 3 point answer: Competition, facilitation, etc... Yes always interact the same.
• 0 point answer: Don’t know, no answer.
3. These pictures were taken at the same location 70 years apart.
1. Describe the changes in appearance.
2. What might cause a plant community to change in appearance?



Figures 10 & 11: Photos for formative evaluation pre and post activity quizzes.
From: Hastings and Turner, The Changing Mile, 1968.





Figure 10: Red Rock Canyon, Patagonia, Arizona 1895.
[printable handout]





Figure 11: Red Rock Canyon, Patagonia, Arizona 1965.
[printable handout]



• 5 point answer: Environmental changes from external sources (i.e., disturbance) and inter-specific interactions
• 3 point answer: Only environmental changes from external sources (i.e., disturbance) or Inter-specific interactions mentioned
• 1 point answer: Plant growth
• 0 point answer: Don’t know, no answer
4. Could these changes have been predicted? If so, what information would you need to know in order to predict community changes?
• 5 point answer: Predictions can be made, but there will be some uncertainty in that prediction. To make a prediction, you need to know how species respond to disturbance, and how the species interact.
• 3 point answer: NO predictions can be made. To make a prediction, you need to know how species respond to disturbance, and how the species interact; or Yes, but answer only includes disturbance or interactions.
• 1 point answer: NO predictions can be made. No info will yield a prediction; or Yes, with no explanation.

Other assessment options include having students apply what they have learned by asking them to try to stack the Event Cards deck to favor a specific species. Have students report their findings. You could have students decide on the grading standards for this report. By creating their own grading rubric, students feel more ownership in and take more responsibility for writing a good report. Ask them what a good report should include, and what parts of the report are essential, without which the report is not satisfactory. These criteria provide the scale from A to F.

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Extension Activities for Advanced Students

1. Have students conduct experiments with the game and write an opinion on the following scenario:

“Environmentalists of the group Earth Brigade are asking the government to ban all grazing in Lorax National Forest. They believe that if the park manager continues to allow cattle to graze in the forest, that soon there will be no Borogrove grass in the forest. The rancher who owns the cattle that are in the forest has told the government that grazing is good for the forest. Grazing encourages the Grickle grass to grow, and the Grickle grass helps the Borogrove grass. The park manager at Lorax National Forest has been telling his boss and others in the government, that grazing makes no difference. Who is right? What happens if we remove grazing? If the decision is made to allow grazing, how often should it happen?”

2. Have students research local ecosystems, learn what disturbances occur, and what adaptations the plants have to those disturbances. Students then create their own game based on the plants and disturbances in their local ecosystems.

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Tools for Formative Evaluation of this Experiment

The evaluation of this activity is tied to the assessment. Specifically, we quiz students before and after the lesson to see if they learn what we hope they learn, and see how to revise steps in the instruction for next time.

To see results of our evaluation, go to the Comments on the Evaluation of the Activity in the "Notes to Faculty" section.

An extensive discussion on Evaluation appears in the Teaching section of this site.