Question

Passage A
For much of the twentieth century, plant ecology was dominated by the climax community theory proposed by Frederic Clements. Clements viewed a plant community as a superorganism, a highly integrated cooperative entity in which individual species were closely bound together by evolutionary history. In this view, communities progress through predictable seral stages, culminating in a stable, self-perpetuating climax state determined primarily by regional climate. Clements argued that the boundaries between different communities were distinct and that the species within them had co-evolved to depend on one another, much like the organs of an animal. This deterministic model implied that if a community were disturbed, it would inevitably repeat the same sequential stages of succession to return to its climax state.

Passage B
In contrast, Henry Gleason championed the individualistic concept of ecology, which met with initial resistance but eventually reshaped the field. Gleason argued that a plant community is not an organism, but rather a temporary, coincidental assembly of species. According to Gleason, plant distribution is determined by the individual abilities of species to disperse, germinate, and survive under the unique environmental conditions of a particular site. Rather than a highly organized unit with sharp boundaries, Gleason described vegetation as a continuous gradient where species populations wax and wane independently. Consequently, ecological succession is not a deterministic march toward a predetermined climax, but a fluid, unpredictable process driven by environmental fluctuations and chance arrivals of seeds.

Based on the passages, Clements (Passage A) and Gleason (Passage B) would disagree most strongly about which of the following statements?