Cache Creek Canyon in Northern California. Photo by Dr. Glen Holstein.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – In the early 20th century, grand theories like relativity and quantum mechanics triumphed and came to define science so much that plant ecology felt it needed one of its own to be taken seriously as science.
Frederic Clements helpfully provided one.
His monoclimax theory claimed all vegetation in a climate zone converged to a particular kind called the climatic climax. It seemed to make sense because in its natural state eastern North America it was largely covered by forests from Quebec to Florida and from the Atlantic to eastern Oklahoma.