演替（英语：succession），在**称作演替，是指在植物群落发展变化过程中，由低级到高级，由简单到复杂，一个阶段接着一个阶段，一个群落代替另一个群落的自然演变现象。

• 植物的传播（配子体的散播）
• 植物的定居
• 植物之间的竞争

Ecological succession is the observed process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time. The time scale can be decades (for example, after a wildfire), or even millions of years after a mass extinction.

The community begins with relatively few pioneering plants and animals and develops through increasing complexity until it becomes stable or self-perpetuating as a climax community. The ʺengineʺ of succession, the cause of ecosystem change, is the impact of established species upon their own environments. A consequence of living is the sometimes subtle and sometimes overt alteration of one's own environment.