This includes the carbon cycle but also changes in community composition and vegetation structure in response to disturbance (e.g., fire, land use) and climate change.

There are two time-scales for this dynamics: Succession considers changes in community composition and vegetation structure over periods up to several hundred years, typically following disturbance such as fire or land use. Over longer-periods of times (e.g., centuries, millenia) the of vegetation changes in response to climate change.