Succession in ecological education

As complex and dynamic systems, wetlands offer the opportunity to investigate and incorporate the ecological concept of succession in educational settings. For example, the well-known, classic hydrosere concept is illustrated in numerous ecology and life-science textbooks. In this chapter, the drawbacks of using the hydrosere successional concept are assessed, and two examples of using wetlands to illustrate the process of succession for educational purposes are described. In each case, the premise and approach is that students best “learn ecology by doing ecology.”