I think "competition and ecological succession" would work, too.

I'm guessing you already have a handle on the rest of the sentence. I can give it a shot if you like. The Wikipedia article does a better job of explaining it than I can, so I'll just refer you to it.

This is out of my field, but I'm procrastinating with one of my jobs right now. :)

From the sounds of things, Casey's answer would work better here. But if you are looking for a more colloquial translation, this term might be better known by general audiences. Just for reference.