Title: primary succession
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - primary succession
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.14951
Status: current

Definition
Sequential colonization by species which begin to colonize the bare ground and modify the environmental conditions after a region is completely denuded; e.g., behind a retreating glacier, early colonizing organisms provide the soils needed by succeeding organisms.

Related Terms
- soils: 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 932 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-08-07-09)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14951/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14951/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14951/xml

Citation: Citation: 'primary succession' 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.14951
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: 2026-05-30T13:13:51+00:00