Dead remaining of plant and animals are called detritus, and it plays a major role in the detritus food chain. It is the primary source of energy in a detritus food chain and the primary consumer's detrivores consumes this dead organic matter detritus, and it is made up of dead plant parts and animals.

A plant succession which occur in an area of the freshwater body such as pond, lakes and marshes is known as hydrosere. It is the primary succession that emerges in an aquatic environment, and it results in the reformation of the water body and its community into a land community. In time, area of open freshwater will generally dry out, eventually converts into woodland. During this change, a range of various land types such as swamp and marsh will replace each other.

The succession of ecological communities which originated in an extremely dry habitat such as a sand dune, sand desert, a rock desert or a salt desert area known as xerosere and the lichens are the pioneers to colonise these primitive type of substratum. In this type of ecological succession successive changes take place in both plants and animals.