Succession takes place if there is a very hostile environment - by hostile, I mean pretty much inhabitable. Firstly, the pioneer species colonize the area, because they've colonized the area this causes a change in the environment. So if the pioneer species are plants then the fact they're photosynthesizing changes the environment - this change makes it less hostile to other organisms. This enables other species to colonize so the biodiversity of the area increases. This means the number of the pioneer species decreases. Going forward a good few years - the stability has now increased to a point where the environment is no where near as hostile as it was and a climax community has now reached.
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