ABSTRACT
The three case studies of the investigation are Henry Chandler Cowles’ account of Lake Michigan sand dune succession, Frederick Clements’ account of Nebraska prairie succession, and Raymond Lindeman’s account of the lake succession of Minnesota’s Cedar Bog Lake. The accounts of succession involved in these case studies operated, more specifically, with different logics of habitat associations. Lindeman’s trophic dynamic account of shallow water lake succession transformed questions concerning the successive distribution of plants through a thematization of the variations among seasonal nutrient cycling. Topographic instability, primitive soil composition, and extreme temperature variability are factors that contribute to the inhospitality of dunes to vegetation and make dunes unique habitats to study early stages of succession. The stabilization involved in the primary dune succession is accomplished by different pioneer species and Cowles correlated these differences with topographical area, shape, and height variability. Cowles’ research on freshwater dune succession demonstrated that biotic features of a habitat can supervene on abiotic topographical habitat features.
