What is a succession?
A succession is a series of more or less, predictable changes that occur in a community after a disturbance over time. There are different kinds of successions such as primary and secondary successions. A primary succession would be an area with nothing from the previous community such as a habitat after a volcano. A secondary succession would be a disturbance that affects the community without completely destroying everything.
Taylor Wells succession
The Taylor Wells oil spill was a secondary succession. The oil destroyed a big portion of the ecosystem but not entirely. Since the foundation of the ecosystem, plankton and algae, would be mostly destroyed, the rest of the food pyramid would fall apart. Some animals that survived would have to carry on the ecosystem. It would take many years for the algae to grow back at the bottom of the Gulf and for the plankton to reproduce back to the original amount. The rest of the ecosystem would slowly build back since not everything was killed. Efforts to clean up the environment would help the ecosystem grow back faster since plants and animals would have access to sunlight instead of the sheen blocking it. The redevelopment of the community could take more than 10 years.