What are some general characteristics of climax community plants?
They are generally trees large woody plants. • What sort of plants come after pioneer plants but before climax community plants? medium-sized plants, such as grasses and bushes SCIENCE IDEAS Help students focus on supporting details for this main idea: Soil is formed as plants die and are mixed back into the ground material. • How do dead plants create and enrich soil? Dead plant material breaks down and releases its nutrients to the ground, which eventually becomes soil. New plants growing in this soil use the nutrients for their own needs. • What can you infer about the soil quality of the climax community? It must be rich as many generations of plants have died and then been incorporated back into the soil. DEVELOP SCIENCE VOCABULARY climax community, p. B93 From the Greek word meaning ladder. A climax community is the highest level community that can be achieved. Ask students to describe when the climax of a movie occurs. (at the height of action or suspense, when the villain is sl
