What is ecological succession? Where and why would the rate of succession be faster in newly created pond or a forest destroyed by a forest fire?

Ecological succession means slow and steady predictable change in the species composition of a given area.

The rate of succession will be faster in area where natural biotic communities have been destroyed like burnt forest, abandoned land, flooded land, cut-out forest, etc. The rate of succession is faster here as some soil or sediments is present in these areas.

In these areas succession is faster than primary succession, as nature does not need to start from stratch due to presence of some soil or sediments. All nutrients are not lost in case of secondary succession due to presence of soil. Hence secondary succession is faster than primary succession.

In newly created pond primary succession takes place. And primary succession is slow. It takes several hundred or several thousand years to produce fertile soil.

During primary or secondary succession a natural or man-made disturbance to an area will convert particular seral stage of succession to an earlier stage. And such disturbances create new conditions to encourage few species and/or eliminate other species.