Late succession species usually fail if planted in disturbed or open sites. A stand of sugar maple on mined land in Indiana has bypassed four successional stages. Seedlings were introduced early to the site, and soil is the type that maples like. Maple has relatively low nitrogen demands. In general, forces guiding succession are less specific than might have been expected.
Information is available on selected fungi, arthropods, and annelids.
Interactions of microorganisms is not well understood. Factors in the development of midwestern forests Seed dispersal, predation, and stochastic events Vegetation of much of the Central Mississippi Valley is classified as some type of oak forest. Present stands of oak forests in southern Illinois are typically 160 years old. The old-growth forests of today developed in environments that differed in many ways from those of the present. Exotic species Broomsedge, sumac, and sassafras-persimmon replaced by sericea lespedeza, Japanese honeysuckle, multiflora rose, and autumn olive in early succession of old fields.