Succession has reigned as a basic concept or theory of ecology certainly since Frederick E. Clements (1916) stated as a “universal law” that “all bare places give rise to new communities except those which present the most extreme conditions of water, temperature, light, or soil.” Its significance persists and was described by Eugene Odum (1969, p. 262) as critical for human society: The principles of ecological succession bear importantly on the relationships between man and nature. The framework of successional theory needs to be examined as a basis for resolving man’s present environmental crisis.