Title: climax community
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - climax community
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.14528
Status: current

Definition
Community of plants and animals in a steady state due to ecological succession resulting in a composition of the community best adapted to average conditions in the area. The term is sometimes applied to soil development.

Related Terms
- Community: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/14531
- soil: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/15036
- succession: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/15077

Source
- PAC, 2009, 81, 829. 'Glossary of terms used in ecotoxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2009)' on page 858 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-08-07-09)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14528/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14528/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14528/xml

Citation: Citation: 'climax community' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.14528
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
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Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-04-21T12:20:58+00:00