climax community

Group of plants and animals that is best able to exploit the environment in which it exists. It is brought about by succession (a change in the species present) and represents the point at which succession ceases to occur.

In temperate or tropical conditions, a typical climax community comprises woodland or forest and its associated fauna (for example, beech and maple forest in parts of the USA). In essence, most land management is a series of interferences with the process of succession.

The theory, created by Frederic Clement in 1916, has been criticized for not explaining ‘retrogressive’ succession, when some areas revert naturally to pre-climax vegetation.