In the epoch of King Trump the cruel fool, a budding Naturalist rambled off a boat to learned from other Naturalists and seeing it all in succession finally understand the lesson of the first story of nature.
In the beginning of the terrestrial world there were cooling rock, ultraviolet radiation…a mosaic of billions of gallons of water fractured, moving, and compartmentalized by oxygen.
… oceans and then atmosphere teeming with life.
Biologically, in life’s beginning, fitness becomes differentiating reproductive success. Adapting prokaryotes evolve into eukaryotes to host them. DNA begets RNA. Bacterial biofilms become microbial mats of breathing dirt.
Lava rises and flows. Volcanos explode.
The temperatures rise and fall. The oceans warm and cool. Gravity is constant and infinite.
When enough water from oceans cycle into dynamic ice fields they become glaciers and now water digests mountains.
Given cause, even glaciers will retreat and deflate. The Ecological Succession of Plants begins with the fall of giant glaciers, awash in rock and ice. These debris fields become recessional moraines and on the periphery outwash plains of sediment.
In distain of vacuums.
First, the mosses, horsetails, lichens, fireweed .
Second, the alders, cottonwoods, willows, oaks.
Third, the spruces, firs, pines, beeches.
Fourth, the hemlocks, cedars, and maples.